Last Sunday, 3rd May, all the world celebrated the importance of keeping all kinds of media free. This is a basic human right, the right to report the news telling the truth. This post is a summary of five articles. The first with the title above http://www.un.org/en/events/pressfreedomday/. The second with the title of, "Syrian journalist Mazen Darwish winner of UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize 2015." At http://www.unesco.org/new/en/communication-and-information/freedom-of-expression/press-freedom/unesco-world-press-freedom-prize/. The third was published with the title of, "World Press Freedom Day: call to protect freedom of expression. At http://www.theguardian.com/media/2015/may/01/world-press-freedom-day-call-to-protect-freedom-of-expression. The fourth was published at https://cpj.org/events/2015/05/world-press-freedom-day-2015-let-journalism-thrive.php. Thr fifth was published athttps://cpj.org/blog/2015/03/brazilian-bloggers-encounter-threats-online-and-of.php#more
This year UNESCO, the United Nations agency mandated to promote and protect press freedom worldwide, has named the CNN Chief International Correspondent Christiane Amanpour its Goodwill Ambassador for Freedom of Expression and Journalist Safety. UNESCO is focusing on three themes for World Press Freedom Day this year: 1) The need for "quality journalism," reporting that is accurate and independent, remains a constant concern in a media that is changing due to technological developments. 2) Gender imbalance continues in the media 20 years after the Beijing Declaration for Change. All too few women journalists are able to reach decision-making position in the media. 3) The third theme is digital safety, a topic of growing concern because digital communications makes it difficult for journalists to protect themselves and their sources. The annual UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize ceremony will take place this year in Riga, Latvia. The winner is Syrian journalist and human rights activist, Mazen Darwish, who is currently imprisoned. The UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said, "quality journalism enables citizens to make informed decisions about their society's development. It also works to expose injustice, corruption, and the abuse of power. For this, journalism must be able to thrive, in an enabling environment in which they can work independently and without undue interference and in conditions of safety."
An independent international jury of media professionals recommended Mazen Darwish in recognition of the work he has carried out in Syrian for more than ten years at great personal sacrifice, enduring a travel ban, harassment, as well as repeated detention and torture. The international jury stressed the need to remember Mr. Darwish, currently in prison, along with so many other human rights defenders and journalists. Darwish, a lawyer and press freedom advocate, is the president of the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression, founded in 2004, and one of the founders of syriaview.net, a news site banned by the Syrian authorities. He has been detained since February 2012, when he was arrested with colleagues Hani Al-Zitani and Hussein Ghareer. Numerous human rights and press organizations around the world have issued calls for the release of Darwish and his fellow journalists. Created by UNESCO in 1997, the annual UNESCO/Guillermo Cano Prize honours a person, organization or institution that has made an outstanding contribution to the defence and,or promotion of press freedom anywhere in the world, and especially when this has been achieved in the face of danger. The $25,000 prize is named in honour of Guillermo Cano, a Colombian journalist who was assassinated in front of his newspaper in Bogotá in 1986. It is funded by the Cano Foundation (Colombia) and the Helsingin Sanomat Foundation (Finland).
The Guardian is among more than 50 organisations using World Press Freedom Day to call governments to protect freedom of expression in the wake of the attack on Charlie Hebdo and increasing state surveillance and censorship. The call is laid out in a letter that says: "After the attack at the office of the satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo that left 11 dead, we, the undersigned, reaffirm our commitment to defending the right to freedom of expression, even when others find it offensive. The letter goes on to detail incidents of violence and threats being used to intimidate media, as well as censorship by governments in countries such as Turkey, Russia and Egypt. It also condemns attempts by European governments to use Charlie Hebdo attacks to clamp down on freedom of expression. It singles out for criticism calls from European ministers for internet service providers to "identify and remove online content 'that aims to incite hatred and terror' and suggestions in the UK that security services should have the ability to monitor communication. It says: "This kind of government response is chilling because a particularly insidious threat to our right to free expression is self-censorship. In order to fully exercise the right to freedom of expression, individuals must be able to communicate without fear of intrusion by the state."
Every year, 3 May is a date which celebrates the principles of press freedom: to evaluate press freedom around the world, to defend the media from attacks on their independence and try to pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the exercise of their profession. Over 100 national celebrations take place to commemorate this day.
Enderson Araújo is so afraid of being killed that he fled his home and is reluctant to talk on the phone for fear he is being bugged. Araújo is the blogger behind Mídia Periférica, a blog run by young journalists in the city of Salvador that focuses on news in poor communities that are undercovered by mainstream media. That is little confort to Araujo, but at least he knows where the threats are coming from. Ana Freitas has no such advantage. Freitas, a 26-years-old freelance journalist, has been harassed on an almost daily basis since writing about machismo and misogyny in the public spaces of the brazilian internet. Anonymous users of forum have threatened her. The incidents, which happened over the course of several days, forced her to close some of her social media accounts and change the settings on others. After someone discovered her address and publicized it, she said she was sent feces, maggots, sex toys, and other things through the mail. Freitas said she filed a report on the harassment at one of the special stations set up for women. In Brazil, journalists have been targets for abuse and worse. CPJ records show it is the 11th deadliest country for the press. Brazil' poor record of impunity adds to the violence and intimidation. Independent bloggers who cover crime and corruption are particularly at risk, a CPJ research shows. Their work can reach a broad audience, yet the major media rarely pay attention if they come under attack. Décio Sá, a blogger in Maranhão was killed in April 2012. His blog covered the intersection between politics and organized crime. Another victim was Mario Randolfo Lopes, a blogger who wrote about corruption and ran a local website in Barra do Piraí, a town near Rio de Janeiro. Araújo and Ana Freitas are freelancers and their safety is unlikely to be a priority for authorities. They continue to work. And they continue to fear.
