2013 Themes for World Press Freedom Day - 3 May
" Ensuring the Safety of Journalists and Media Workers."
" Combating Impunity of Crimes against Press Freedom. "
" Online Safety."
" Ensuring the Safety of Journalists and Media Workers."
" Combating Impunity of Crimes against Press Freedom. "
" Online Safety."
For 20 years, May 3 has been a day when the world celebrates freedom
of expression and stands together for its protection. This is the spirit
of the 1991 Declaration of Windhoek, whose anniversary the United
Nations General Assembly chose for World Press Freedom Day. UNESCO was
instrumental in framing the Windhoek Declaration and works today to
promote freedom of expression across the world.
Joint Message from Mr, Ban Ki-Moon and Ms Irina Bokova - WPFD2013
Joint Message from Mr, Ban Ki-Moon and Ms Irina Bokova - WPFD2013
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| PRESSING FOR FREEDOM - 20 Years of World Press Freedom Day |
Fundamental
to the UN Plan is the insight that the experiences in one country or
region can be useful for others trying to improve the safety of
journalists. Compilation and sharing of up-to-date information and best
practices and conducting international missions and investigations into
particular cases can be highly beneficial. However, much work is still
needed to achieve an optimum level of information exchange and joint
learning, and in adapting good practices to different regional and
national contexts.
Points for reflection:
- What are the biggest opportunities and threats to the UN Plan of Action?
- How do threats to press freedom differ from region to region?
- How can various strategies to improve safety be replicated in different regions?
- What are the preventive mechanisms to prevent journalists from being harmed in the first place?
- How do we ensure that international standards for safety of journalists and combating impunity are respected and adopted in the country context?
- How can public awareness be developed to ensure that press freedom is widely cherished and that public opinion at all levels will not tolerate attacks on journalists?
Our hands write history when they are not handcuffed.
A
free, independent and pluralistic media environment, online and
offline, must be one in which journalists, media workers, and social media producers can work safely and independently without the fear of being threatened or even killed. It needs to be an environment where
attacks, intimidations, harassments, abductions, arbitrary
imprisonments, and threats are the exceptions and not the norm.
Journalists (as well as citizen journalists), editors, publishers and
online intermediaries alike should not be subjected to political or
financial coercion and manipulation. They should especially be protected
from threats to the security of themselves and their families.
" Combating Impunity of Crimes against Press Freedom. "
Various countries and organizations have been
working on reducing impunity independently or in close cooperation. The
Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) issues an annual index on
impunity tracking some of the highest rates of impunity around the
world. The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and Inter
American Press Association (IAPA) have regular programmes and reports on
impunity. IFEX has led the process in the promotion of the
International Day to End Impunity on 23 November as a global awareness
raising campaign. What are some of the more effective measures taken
globally to reduce impunity? And can they be replicated elsewhere? What
are the lessons to be learnt?
Points for reflection:
- What is the extent of impunity in your country and how best to address it?
- What is the state of impunity globally?
- How to improve research into the extent, visibility and consequences of impunity?
- What are some of the good practices of to fight impunity that could be replicated elsewhere?
- Is the legal justice chain adequately designed and equipped to handle crimes against freedom of expression?
- What are the challenges of investigating crimes against press freedom when these are committed by non-state actors including extremist organizations or criminal enterprises?
" Online Safety."
The issue of safety online also concern more than just the individual
blogger or professional journalist. With the rise of institutions
playing a mediating role on the Internet between authors of content and
audiences, they need to understand international standards and their
implications. Any limitation to freedom of expression must be imposed as
a truly exceptional measure, must be provided by law, and in the pursue
of legitimate purpose and be proven as necessary and the least
restrictive means possible . Accordingly, awareness and sharing of best
practice is needed to ensure that intermediaries can provide principled
responses if they are to protect freedom of expression in the face of
mounting pressures to disclose user identities, conduct surveillance
operations or take down content when there is an objection.
All this resonates with the evolution of the
Internet as a platform that to date has attracted less restriction than
other media platforms. The free and open character of the Internet,
which is a precondition for online safety, is underpinned by a
multi-stakeholder model of governance as confirmed by the resolutions of
the World Summit of the Information Society.
Points for reflection:
- How well do reporters understand the risks of using digital technology?
- How do these dangers or potential of digital technology differ from region to region?
- What emerging and possible new threats endanger the safety of journalists, bloggers, citizen journalists and others expressing themselves in the digital realm?
- How aware are journalists of these threats, and how do they respond?
- What are common misperceptions surrounding digital safety?
- What systems exist amongst intermediaries, and how prevalent are they across the world?
- What role can governments, international organizations, civil society, the media and other private sector actors play in ensuring journalists’ digital safety?
- How can Internet freedom and its multi-stakeholder basis be reinforced?
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