UN DEPUTY CHIEF, VETERAN JOURNALISTS URGE SECURITY COUNCIL TO DO MORE TO PROTECT REPORTERS

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From: UNNews <UNNews@un.org>
Date: 17 Jul 2013 15:00:00 -0400
Subject: UN DEPUTY CHIEF, VETERAN JOURNALISTS URGE SECURITY COUNCIL TO
DO MORE TO PROTECT REPORTERS
To: news11@ny-mail-p-lb-028.ptc.un.org

UN DEPUTY CHIEF, VETERAN JOURNALISTS URGE SECURITY COUNCIL TO DO MORE
TO PROTECT REPORTERSNew York, Jul 17 2013 3:00PMWith journalists
working in dangerous corners of the world being thrown in prison or
murdered in record numbers, the Deputy Secretary-General joined
veteran reporters today urging the United Nations Security Council to
stand up against all acts to suppress media freedom wherever and
whenever they occur.

"When journalists are killed, information about threats to
international peace and security is often buried," Deputy
Secretary-General Jan Eliasson told the Council in a special meeting
devoted to the protection of journalists in armed conflict. He added
that the 15-member body may wish to consider the targeting of
journalists and other threats to freedom of expression when addressing
situations on its agenda.

Every time a journalist is killed or intimidated into silence, "there
is one less voice to speak on behalf of the victims of conflict, crime
and human rights abuses…one less observer of efforts to uphold rights
and ensure human dignity," said Mr. Eliasson.

Today's meeting is the first time the Council specifically considers
the issue of protection of journalists in armed conflict since it
adopted resolution 1738 on the issue in 2006, and the first time four
international journalists directly address the UN body.

Those providing often chilling accounts of the dangers they and their
colleagues faced in the field included Kathleen Carroll, Associated
Press executive editor and vice chair of the board of the Committee to
Protect Journalists (CPJ), Richard Engel of NBC News, Ghaith
Abdul-Ahad from the Guardian, and Mustafa Haji Abdinur of AFP, a
self-taught reporter working in Somalia, who told the Council
sombrely: "I'm here simply because I'm lucky; because the gunmen who
have killed so many of my friends have not yet found me. Still, it's
not a matter of if, but when."

Mr. Eliasson said that in the past decade, more than 600 journalists
have been killed, the majority local journalists and media staff often
reporting on corruption and other illegal activities. It is "shocking
and unacceptable" that more than 90 per cent of the assassinations on
journalists go unpunished, he noted, urging that "the least we can do
when a journalist is murdered, is to ensure that the death is
investigated swiftly and justice is served."

The UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issues of
Impunity aims to create a free and safe environment for journalists
and media workers, both in conflict and non-conflict situations, as a
prerequisite for freedom of expression and democracy. The Plan was
approved in April 2012 by the UN Chief Executives Board and led by the
UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

A multi-dimensional, multi-actor approach, the Plan requires
cooperation from Governments -- particularly through Ministries of
Information, academia, as well as media houses and civil society to
conduct awareness about threats to journalists.

Mr. Eliasson encouraged all UN entities to submit information which
could contribute to journalists' greater safety.

Stressing the importance of freedom of expression, Mr. Eliasson
highlighted that the fundamental human right at the heart of
journalistic work is in the report of the Secretary-General's High
Level Panel of Eminent Persons on the Post-2015 Development Agenda.
The report aimed to outline a new framework building on the eight
anti-poverty targets known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).

In her remarks, Ms. Carroll stressed that journalists represent the
ordinary citizen. "An attack on a journalist is a proxy for an attack
on the people, an attack on their right to information about their
communities and their institutions."

Citing CPJ figures, she noted that 5 in 6 murdered journalists are
killed in their own hometowns covering local stories, often related to
crime and corruption, and that 90 per cent of the cases go unpunished.

Mr. Engel argued that protecting journalists is harder than ever
because of the blurred delineation between who is a journalist and an
activist.

"If the discussion today is about protection journalists, you have to
decide who gets protection? Who deserves it? And who forfeits it," Mr.
Engel asked, noting that professional journalists for State and
private media, as well as freelancers who join rebel groups and carry
guns, are often lumped in the same category.

"We're all troublemakers," Mr. Engel said stressing how journalists
are perceived by Governments. "The guild of professionals isn't
recognized anymore. It should be. Just like you in the diplomatic
community need protection to be objective. If you want professionals
who are also objective we need protection as well."

Saying that war-time reporters were often referred to as "dead men
walking", Mr. Abdinur said that scores of journalists had been killed
covering the decades-long conflict in Somalia. He longed for the day
when the perpetrators of such crimes were prosecuted and punished, as
the vast majority of perpetrators today continued to kill with
impunity.

"When a journalist is killed, the news dies too," he said. The
question today was, how long could that bravery continue? Indeed, "we
are few remaining." The Council's discussion today would play an
important role in answering that question, and in helping to encourage
States to support journalist. In the meantime, the work of telling the
truth would continue. "We will not fail the dream, we will never be
discouraged."

For his part, Mr. Abdul-Ahad echoed many of the same sentiments,
saying there is a sense of immunity for all those who captured
journalists; they were never questioned and they never paid for it.
That created a sense that professional journalists were "asking" for
trouble just by being on a particular scene. "But we have to be
there; we are telling the story," he said.

"We would happily be sitting in our countries and writing from our
desks," he said, but by covering conflicts today, journalists became
part of them. When he had been detained in Afghanistan and Libya,
certain groups helped with his release, but other reporters had been
left behind. Professional journalists were part of a community of
informers who deserved protection. If the Security Council could do
more to recognize journalists as a part of a "humanitarian effort to
tell a story", perhaps the 15-member body could foster their
protection, he suggested. Jul 17 2013 3:00PM
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