THE United Nations (UN) has urged member states to tighten their monitoring systems on violations against journalists and media freedom, with laws that safeguard media freedom in line with international human rights law.
This follows a rise in number of violations and persecution of journalists worldwide, a development which has been described as a drawback to smooth and effective communications.
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In a message to mark this year’s International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Volker Türk stressed that journalism was crucial to human rights and investigative journalism helped ensure institutional transparency.
“Objective information enables people to make sound choices and participate meaningfully in decision-making. Online and ‘real life’ media serve as watchdogs and early warning systems for the full range of potential human rights violations. And that is precisely why journalists are so frequently the targets of threats, violence and even murder; because their work is so crucial to upholding the human rights of us all,” he said.
“And we need much more effective action by police and justice systems to investigate and prosecute crimes that target journalists because of their work.”
Turk said those commitments were central to the United Nations Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists adopted in 2012, and were key to the fulfilment of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, whose 75th anniversary we commemorate this year.
Türk further women media practitioners faced the highest levels of online harassment while saying that so far, attention has been put to the issue of journalists harassment at international level.
“Women journalists in particular suffer intolerable levels of online harassment, often leading to attacks in real life.The extent of impunity for attacks against journalists and other media workers is unacceptable. And over the past decade, the international community has stepped up its attention to this issue,” he said.
“Reports have been published, and resolutions adopted. The existence of this International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalist is evidence of this work to bring a spotlight to such crimes.”
Already this year, at least 46 journalists have been killed. Most were probably deliberately murdered, but it’s not likely that the perpetrators will be punished; according to UNESCO, 86% of crimes against journalists happen with impunity.
Last year, 363 journalists were imprisoned – a 20% increase over 2021. And more and more journalists are being subjected to abusive lawsuits, on the basis of poorly defined laws on defamation, cyber-libel, antiterrorism, cyber security and so-called “fake news.”
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