Curbing the Soaring Threats to Free Speech

Media freedom across the world has continued to sustain severe threats on diverse fronts. On a daily basis, more and more journalists are being harassed, attacked, and killed, sued or jailed for their work. This problem has its prime root in that fact that more governments around the world are becoming increasingly repressive of free speech, despite constitutional provisions, which give the people the right to unfettered access to information by guaranteeing the freedoms of the press and of speech. In 2011, UNESCO condemned the killing of 62 journalists who died as a result of their work. A recent report by Reporters Without Borders estimated that over the last year, at least one journalist was killed every five days. 

This was a major focus of the 2012 World Press Freedom Day conference in Tunis from May 3 - 5, where over 700 delegates representing the spectrum of the world’s media – media experts, journalists, internet freedom and security advocates etc. – convened to brainstorm on compounding threats facing news-gatherers in the discharge of their duty as conveyors of public information.

In remarks at the opening ceremony of the 2012 World Press Freedom Day conference convened in Tunis, Esther Brimmer, United States assistant secretary of state for International Organizations, observed that too many governments around the world continue to censor journalists either directly or indirectly.  A classic example of this is Liberia, for example, where the media remain subject to regulation by Government, in spite of the constitutional provisions calling for their protection. While the Liberian media currently enjoy relative freedom of expression, in reality, their functions as conveyors of public information, investigators and repositories of public trust, remain a subject of heavy regulation by law.

Local dailies protesting President Sirleaf's security chief's gun threat. The black front page protest action ran for two days

Ms. Brimmer was, however, quick in adding that threats against journalist come from multiple sources, not just governments.

This is because it is no more the politicians or the economically strong elites interfering with the independence of the media. Judicial harassment of journalists has seen a proliferation of defamation laws in many countries around the world – a major restriction to free speech. The tendency by public officials is to hide behind defamation laws in defense of their self-proclaimed reputations when brought into the spotlight for alleged wrong doings by journalists whose call to duty is to mirror society, highlighting issues, personalities, places, events and other elements that are relevant to its existence.

Fellows, panelists and participants at the Tunis conference believe that defamation laws are a major press censorship tool being used by governments around the world and have called for the unconditional decriminalization of speech.

The conference delegates said defamation must be decriminalized both on- and off-line, and be made part of the civil code, in accordance to international standards. And as much attention may be given to curbing hate speech online, even more should be given to advancing information and media literacy so that users are empowered to be the final arbiters of assessing the content that they consume and produce online, operating with appropriate understandings of international principles of freedom of expression and the limited nature of limitations that can be placed on this human right.

In the Carthage Declaration, adopted at the close of the three-day press freedom conference, however, delegates called on governments to repeal criminal defamation laws and “unreasonable secrecy laws and to train state security forces to interact positively with media professionals, especially during peaceful demonstrations and civil protests.”

The conference resolved that governments transform state-owned media into public service media outlets with guarantee of full editorial and financial independence of such institutions. Governments were also called on to ensure that public advertisement is not used as a tool to reward or punish media on political grounds, and instead is distributed on a transparent and equitable basis.

Delegates further called on governments to guarantee the independence of media regulatory bodies and enhance their role in promoting media diversity. They are also expected to develop and implement policies that promote media pluralism and avoid undue media ownership concentration, whilst also supporting equitable access to means of communication and bridging digital divides.

The Carthage Declaration called on stakeholders to work towards strengthening an environment for free, editorially independent and pluralistic media, including in countries in transition towards democracy. Stakeholders were also tasked to support initiatives to promote professional and ethical standards in journalism as well as best journalistic practices, including citizen journalism. They are also expected to promote media literacy by empowering citizens to seek, evaluate, use and create information to participate in decisions about their economic, social and cultural context.

In her keynote remarks, 2011 Nobel Peace Laureate Tawakkul Karman requested governments of the Arab world to say “NO” to laws that restrict free speech by repealing such laws with immediate effect.

“You feeble tyrants, no laws or actions will put us down even if it took us 10 more revolutions,” Karma warned leaders of the Arab world.

She said freedom of expression remains the cornerstone of any democracy.

Access to information, a sticky global test, transforms societies by enlightening the decision making process with information, thus empowering individuals to take control of their destinies. In this context, media freedom plays a crucial role in the transformation of society by reshaping its political, economic and social aspects.

This year’s World Press Freedom Day centered on the theme of New Voices: Media Freedom Helping to Transform Societies. The conference considered that the right to free speech and press freedom are deeply interconnected with the right to access information, which it believes is a priority to bridge the digital divide both between and within countries.

In their joint World Press Freedom Day message, UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon and UNESCO Director-General Ms Irina Bokova said freedom of expression underpins every other freedom and provides a foundation for human dignity. Free, pluralistic and independent media is essential for its exercise.

“Media freedom entails the freedom to hold opinions and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers, as stated in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This freedom is essential for healthy and vibrant societies. Change in the Arab world has shown the power of aspirations for rights when combined with new and old media. Newfound media freedom is promising to transform societies through greater transparency and accountability. It is opening new ways to communicate and to share information and knowledge. Powerful new voices are rising – especially from young people – where they were silent before,” they said.

Go to this Link