|
The World Association of Newspapers, a global organisation for
the newspaper industry representing 18,000 newspapers, said major
terrorist attacks and threats against countries worldwide have led
to the widespread tightening of security and surveillance measures
which all too often are also used to stifle debate, individual liberties
and freedom of the press.
The Paris-based Association includes among its members 76 national
newspaper associations, newspaper companies and individual newspaper
executives in 102 countries, 12 news agencies and 10 regional and
worldwide press groups.
Media around the globe will highlight the dangers of these measures
for their audiences on World Press Freedom Day. The Association
is offering a package of interviews, articles, essays, infographics
and advertisements to publish on 3 May to commemorate the importance
of a free press and the necessity of protecting it against attacks,
even in democracies.
The package of materials examines anti-terrorism and official secrets
laws, criminalisation of speech judged to justify terrorism, criminal
prosecution of journalists for disclosing classified information,
surveillance of communications without judicial authorisation, and
restrictions on access to government data.
"All of these measures can severely erode the capacity of journalists
to investigate and report accurately and critically, and thus the
ability of the press to inform," said WAN Chief Executive Officer
Timothy Balding.
"Balancing the sometimes conflicting interests of security
and freedom might indeed be difficult, but democracies have an absolute
responsibility to use a rigorous set of standards to judge whether
curbs on freedom can be justified by security concerns," he
said. "This is the clear message we need to impress on governments
and their agencies on World Press Freedom Day."
Contributors to the articles, essays, interviews and editorials
being offered for publication include Bill Keller, Executive Editor
of The New York Times, Dinah PoKempner, General Counsel of Human
Rights Watch, Agnes Callamard, Executive Director of Article 19,
David Banisar of Privacy International, Andrei Richter, Director
of the Moscow Media Law and Policy Institute, Chinese Journalist
Gao Yu, Seamus Dooley of the London-based National Union of Journalists,
and Raymond Louw of the South African National Editors Forum.
The package also includes compelling public service advertisements,
produced by major advertising agencies world-wide, on the theme,
"press under surveillance," materials for engaging younger
readers, infographics on the number of journalists killed and jailed,
and editorial cartoons on press freedom themes, a video spot for
broadcast or for web sites will be available shortly.
|