World Press Freedom Day Supports Journalists Facing Threats

By Eric Green

Washington -- Global events marking World Press Freedom Day May 3 will spotlight repression against independent journalists and murders of members of the media, many of which go unpunished.

Press Freedom Day will remind the world that 171 journalists were killed in 2007 while pursuing their work, a number just short of the yearly record, and hundreds more were threatened, imprisoned or tortured, says the United Nations. The U.N. General Assembly in 1993 established each May 3 as the commemorative day for press freedom.

Joel Simon, executive director of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists, says that when Press Freedom Day was created, “I don’t think anyone expected it to have the kind of resonance that it does today.”

Simon said the day is marked by numerous rallies, protests and newspaper editorials to focus international attention on the violence and repression inflicted on the media in many countries.

The U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) will hold its central activities marking the special day in Mozambique, a country where press freedom has begun to thrive following a civil war that ended in 1992.

Simon said, however, that the country’s small independent press corps was traumatized by the November 2000 murder of a leading Mozambican investigative reporter, Carlos Cardoza.

The murder “got a huge amount of attention” in Mozambique and internationally, Simon said. Cardoza was considered a fearless muckraker (a journalist who exposes corruption and scandals in business and politics). Reports said he was killed for daring to denounce by name criminal elements and corrupt government officials. The case spurred a “great deal of awareness about press freedom” in Mozambique, Simon said.

The press has been “quite vital in Mozambique in the post-civil war period, and has served as an independent voice,” said Simon. He added that the “state media is credible” in that country, a situation he said is not typical for Africa.

Mozambique’s government will participate in the May 3 ceremonies in Maputo, the Mozambican capital. Scheduled events include the awarding of UNESCO’s $25,000 prize to a journalist or organization for actions that contributed to the defense and promotion of world press freedom. The 2007 prize was awarded posthumously to the Russian journalist and human rights activist Anna Politkovskaya, who was shot dead in October 2006.

REPRESSIVE GOVERNMENTS FEAR INDEPENDENT MEDIA

David Hoffman, president of Internews Network, a nongovernmental group that promotes independent media, says press freedom day is important “because it reminds us of the vital role that a free and open media have in supporting democracy and civil society and creating transparency in government.”

Hoffman said he considers government repression of the independent media the top issue for Press Freedom Day.

Some countries have laws -- that “aren’t being followed” -– to protect the media, said Hoffman, whose organization is funded by the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, among others.

Hoffman said an “anti-democratic backlash” against the media began following the 2003 “Rose Revolution” in Georgia, and similar movements in post-communist societies in Central and Eastern Europe and in Central Asia.

“Many repressive governments are fearful of an independent media in their countries because of the prominent role” that the press played in bringing about those movements, said Hoffman.

He cited Russia as an example of a country where the “independent media has been closed down,” which included the 2007 expulsion of Internews from the country on what Hoffman called the Russian government’s “purely political” charges against his group for alleged currency violations.

PRESS FREEDOM DAY IMPORTANT IN EMERGING DEMOCRACIES

William Orme, policy adviser for media development at the U.N. Development Programme, says that in “emerging democracies around the world, World Press Freedom Day has become a very significant event.”

The day is a “moment in the calendar [to support] journalists who often feel in jeopardy, marginalized and under threat,” Orme said. “It’s a moment where the international community officially acknowledges the central importance of a free media and a democratic system.”

Press Freedom Day, said Orme, is not just for journalists, but also serves as a reminder to the world’s citizens and governments “that the right to free expression and the exchange of information” is guaranteed in Article 19 of the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Most countries are signatories to that international covenant, said Orme, a former newspaper reporter and executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

Orme said his U.N. agency once ranked Mozambique as the poorest country in the world, but the nation has emerged after almost 20 years of civil war and hundreds of thousands dead to a stage when the nation’s leadership has “tried to build a democratic culture, including great leeway for the press.”

Though the situation for journalists in that nation is “hardly perfect,” Orme said, Mozambique holds “very important symbolic significance within Africa and around the world” as a place where press freedom is recognized as part of the country’s “democratic experiment.”

Article 19 of the U.N. declaration about human rights is available on the UNESCO Web site.