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 You are in: Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs > Bureau of Public Affairs > Bureau of Public Affairs: Press Relations Office > Press Releases (Other) > 2004 > September 
Notice to the Press (Revised)
Office of the Spokesman
Washington, DC
September 13, 2004


Special Press Briefing and Release of Annual Report on International Religious Freedom

Secretary of State Colin L. Powell will deliver remarks on the release of the State Department’s Annual Report on International Religious Freedom on Wednesday, September 15, 2004 at 10:30 a.m. At this time, the Department will also announce designation of "Countries of Particular Concern" for "particularly severe violations of religious freedom" under the International Religious Freedom Act. Following the Secretary's opening remarks, Ambassador John V. Hanford will speak and respond to reporters’ questions. This event is on camera and on the record, and will be held in the State Department’s press briefing room (Room 2209).

Advance Copies of the Embargoed Report
Embargoed copies of the publication on CD-ROM will be available on Wednesday at 9:00 a.m. in the State Department’s Press Office (Room 2109). The entire report is EMBARGOED until the end of the press briefing, approximately 11:30 a.m., September 15. Copies will not be reserved, mailed, faxed or delivered to a building entrance.

Members of the press who attend this briefing should arrive at the 23rd Street entrance and must present one of the following: (1) A U.S. Government-issued identification card (Department of State, White House, Congress, Department of Defense or Foreign Press Center), (2) a media-issued photo identification card, or (3) letter from their employer on letterhead verifying their employment as a journalist, accompanied by an official photo identification card (driver's license, passport). Press should allow adequate time to process through security and to be in the briefing room 10 minutes before the briefing.

Electronic Access to the Report via Internet
The full text of the report will be available for downloading from the State Department web site at www.state.gov as soon as possible after the briefing on Wednesday morning.

Background on the Annual Report and CPC announcements
This is the sixth annual State Department report on the status of international religious freedom. In addition to individual reports on 196 countries and areas, the report contains an Executive Summary that provides an overview of barriers to religious freedom around the world, improvements in religious liberty in various countries, and U.S. actions to promote religious freedom.

Simultaneous with the release of the report, the Department will also announce the countries the United States is designating as Countries of Particular Concern (CPC) under the International Religious Freedom Act for "particularly severe violations" of religious freedom. The last CPC designations were made in March 2003 when the following countries were cited for their particularly severe religious freedom violations: Burma, China, Iran, Iraq, North Korea, and Sudan. (Iraq was removed from the list earlier this year.) This will mark the first time the release of the report and the CPC designations are made at the same time.

Press Contacts
For more information on this event, contact Gene Bigler, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor at (202) 647-1957 or the Office of Press Relations at (202) 647-2492.

2004/974

Released on September 13, 2004

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