On World Press Freedom Day the Commission is officially launching the Lorenzo Natali Prize for 2009. The prize is awarded in partnership with Reporters Without Borders and the World Association of Newspapers to journalists who have demonstrated a commitment to human rights, democracy and development.

The Natali Prize is an international press award dating back to 1992. In 2008 over 1500 journalists from 151 countries took part. It is open to journalists working in TV, radio, the press and online.

Interested journalists have until 30 June 2009 to apply. Prizes worth a total of ?60 000 will be awarded to the winners in the different sections including Asia.

For more information: http://www.nataliprize2009.eu/content/en/

http://www.nataliprize2009.eu/content/en/

Khoji Akbar Turajonzoda, member of the Tajik parliament characterized an article published in the newspaper “Sobytiya” as an unmitigated lie. The publication on 9 April 2009 by an anonymous author is titled “Turajonzoda – a KGB agent”.
The feedback by Turojonzoda to the article is published in the Ozandogon newspaper on 7 May 2009.
The parliamentarian says that during two weeks he was asking the editor of “Sobytiya” to publish his confutation and reveal the name of the author, but the editor declines his request under various pretences.
“Regrettably, the article was reposed on the web site of the state news agency “Khovar” and reprinted by the government newspaper “Jumkhuriyat”, — says Turajonzoda. — “I have understood that not only the TALCO (the Tajik state aluminum company), but also certain influential people from the government stand behind this case. This is why I decided not to apply to the court – since I cannot argue with the government, and, on the other hand, I consider this would be useless”.
It should be noted that “Sobytiya” reprinted the article, which originally appeared on the forum.msk.ru web site on 15 March 2009.

NANSMIT Monitoring Service

The Tajik office of the British Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR) is going to expand the regional network of journalists from remote areas.

With this purpose in view, IWPR held a two-day training course on international standards of journalism for media professionals in the rural regions of Tajikistan.

Lola Olimova, IWPR representative in Tajikistan says that the training was conducted within the framework of the IWPR project “Human rights and legal education through the media” financed by the European Commission. The Eurasia Foundation, which implements its own project “Tajik Regional Network of Correspondents”, was a co-organizer of the training.

http://www.asiaplus.tj/

Today in Sri Lanka, the government claims the 25-year-old war against the Tamil Tigers is finally winding down — an event any journalist would be eager to cover. But the government has refused to allow reporters access to the war zones, or to those areas where thousands have been stranded amid the shelling.

In times of upheaval, people’s need for reliable information is especially great — their very survival may depend on it. “Whenever blood flows, reporters’ ink should flow too,” says IFEX member Reporters Without Borders (RSF), who is leading an international campaign demanding that journalists be allowed to move freely in Sri Lanka’s conflict areas.

The demand is timely, as journalists and others from around the world converge in Doha, Qatar to celebrate UNESCO’s World Press Freedom Day, whose theme this year is the potential of the media to foster dialogue, mutual understanding and reconciliation.

“Strengthening the principles and practices of a free and professional media is the most sustainable way of encouraging a media culture that works towards building peace,” says UNESCO’s Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura. “Only a media that is vibrant, independent, pluralistic, inclusive and fair, editorially free and beyond censorship and influence from owners or interests can contribute to dialogue and reconciliation across divides.”

In light of this year’s theme, the UNESCO World Press Freedom Prize, awarded each year to an individual or organisation that demonstrates courage in defending free expression, is honouring a committed Sri Lankan journalist who opposed the war, Lasantha Wickrematunge.

Wickrematunge, the high profile leader of the Sri Lankan paper “The Sunday Leader”, was on his way to work in Colombo on 8 January 2009, when he was attacked by a group of men on military-style motorbikes. He died several hours later.

Perhaps most remarkable about his assassination was that he predicted it: three days after the attack, “The Sunday Leader” published his final column. Wickrematunge talked about how much the press freedom situation had deteriorated in the past few years in the midst of a civil war. He condemned with equal fervour the army’s occupation of Sri Lanka’s north and east, and the Tamil Tigers the government is fighting. And he convincingly argued that when he would finally be killed, “it will be the government that kills (him).”

“Jury members were moved to an almost unanimous choice by a man who was clearly conscious of the dangers he faced but nevertheless chose to speak out, even beyond his grave,” said the jury. “Lasantha Wickrematunge continues to inspire journalists around the world.”

UNESCO points out that communicating across cultural differences is as crucial in peace times as it is in war. So during its two-day international conference in Doha, attendees will address the role that media can play in intercultural dialogue and mutual understanding by eradicating hate speech, ignorance and prejudices.

Media can not only serve to promote tolerance and acceptance of difference, says Matsuura, but can also strip away “the ignorance that breeds mistrust and suspicion,” and challenge “prevailing attitudes and stereotypes about other cultures, religions and peoples.”

Hot off the heels of a “defamation of religions” resolution at the Human Rights Council and lingering anger at the Danish cartoon controversy, the specific role of the media in promoting inter-religious dialogue and mutual understanding is an apt topic.

And how about the journalists themselves? The need for self-regulation and high ethical standards, particularly during times of conflict, will also be at the heart of the dialogue. The Media Institute for Southern Africa (MISA), for example, is using this World Press Freedom Day to call on the media in embattled Zimbabwe and Zambia to set up self-regulatory mechanisms. “Such efforts… are not meant to shield the media from criticism or infringe on editorial independence, but in fact enhance the interaction of the media with its public as well as enhance media professionalism,”
argues MISA.

As we celebrate World Press Freedom Day 2009, this year’s theme of media, dialogue and mutual understanding aptly captures the ideal situation that many in the media yearn for and are working toward. In Sri Lanka, IFEX members continue to demand that the media be allowed to provide that vital space in which opposing views can be aired and dialogue can get started — a crucial foundation for reconciliation and reconstruction. Matsuura reminds us that “a free press is not a luxury that can wait until more peaceful times. It is, rather, part of the very process through which they may be achieved.”

Visit these links:

— IFEX World Press Freedom Day page

— UNESCO World Press Freedom Day 2009 page

— Sri Lanka: Call for journalists to be let into area where “a major humanitarian crisis” is unfolding with no media presence (RSF)

— Emerging threats, the need for vigilance and consolidation on media gains in Southern Africa (MISA)

********

IFEX MEMBERS’ AND PARTNERS’ WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY EVENTS

Every year, IFEX members and partners around the world mark World Press Freedom Day with activities to promote the right to freedom of expression, and to raise awareness of threats against journalists, writers and others who are targeted for exercising this right. Find out here what is happening in your area this year:

AFRICA

For the 15th year in a row, the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA) is unveiling its hefty report, “So this is Democracy”, which looks at the state of the media in Southern Africa. MISA recorded 163 alerts in the year 2008, the most serious violations taking place in Tanzania — most notably the acid attack on journalist Saed Kubenea of the “Mwanahalisi”. The government later banned the weekly, allegedly for publishing seditious material. A similar distrust of private media has been the basis for media closures in Lesotho and Zimbabwe, says MISA. On 3 May, find out about other noteworthy violations by reading MISA’s World Press Freedom Day statement and downloading the report here: http://www.misa.org

The West African Journalists’ Association (WAJA) is taking up UNESCO’s theme of “media, dialogue and mutual understanding” by participating in demonstrations in Bamako, Mali and Dakar, Senegal and calling for talks between government and the media in West Africa. WAJA has high hopes that dialogue will help create an environment conducive to development of the media sector, “to decriminalise press offences and to put an end to the killings, assaults, arrests and imprisonment of journalists.” See: http://www.ujaowaja.org

The Media Foundation for West Africa (MFWA) is teaming up with the Ghana Journalists Association to put dialogue between the government and the media in practice. On 4 May, press freedom advocates, such as Kwame Karikari, executive director of MFWA, and the presidents of Ghana’s journalists’, newspaper publishers’ and independent broadcasters’ associations, can exchange views with the Minister of Information, Zita Okaikoi at a symposium at the Ghana International Press Centre in Accra.

Two days later, on 6 May, more talks will follow on how to turn GBC — Ghana Broadcasting Corporation — into a “true public service broadcaster.” See: http://www.mediafound.org

Worried about the growing intolerance towards independent journalism and rising violence against journalists, the Eastern Africa Journalists Association is organising a workshop on 2-3 May in Kigali, Rwanda. IFEX members the Media Institute from Kenya and Somalia’s National Union of Somali Journalists will be just some of the attendees addressing the situation facing journalists and media in eastern Africa, including journalists’ safety and working conditions, professional ethical standards, the place of investigative journalism in the region, and media as a tool for dialogue and reconciliation. Email: moise (@) eaja.org or omar (@) nusoj.org

AMERICAS

On 24 April, radio reporter José Everardo Aguilar, who often talked about corruption on his radio programme, was gunned down in his home in El Bordo, in southwestern Colombia. To mark 3 May this year, the Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC) of International PEN has released the “Declaration in Defence of the Freedom to Write in the Americas”.

Endorsed by 50 heavyweight writers, such as Noam Chomsky and Lydia Cacho, the declaration condemns violence against journalists in Latin America and the impunity that surrounds their cases. The situation is particularly dire in Mexico, where in the past five years alone 20 journalists have died and four others have disappeared — PEN is urging you to publicise the declaration and to mobilise as many appeals as possible to the Mexican President now and throughout the year, using the postcard found here: http://tinyurl.com/cn34l8

It’s official: Mexico has become the Americas’ most dangerous country for journalists. So this year, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) joined the Overseas Press Club to present a panel in New York City to discuss “Mexico’s Pitfalls for Journalists” on 27 April for World Press Freedom Day. Panellists, including three experienced Mexican reporters, discussed the risks associated with covering the news in Mexico and on the U.S.-Mexican border, from the drug cartels that target “curious” journalists to press freedom violations by the security forces. See who said what, here: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=30835

The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) knows that free expression is a fundamental human right enshrined in international law — and wants to ensure the world knows it too. IAPA is using 3 May to draw attention to its public awareness campaign, “One word can make a thousand changes in your life, and you have the right to say the next one.” Download one of six ads, each with a prominent figure in contemporary history (Simón Bolívar, Nelson Mandela, Martin Luther King, Pope John Paul II, Pelé and Albert Einstein) and a word or phrase that led to their success when they uttered it. For materials, see: http://www.sipiapa.com/banner/regi/index.php?idioma=us

IFEX’s member in Guatemala Centro de Reportes Informativos sobre Guatemala
(CERIGUA) punches in with its 2008 free expression report on Guatemala. The results aren’t good — besides growing media concentration, independent journalists are at risk from organised criminals, which have penetrated the small country and are one of the greatest threats to free expression. Read about how they have made their mark on Guatemala here:
http://tinyurl.com/bpwxhf

What’s it like reporting in conflict-ridden Afghanistan? Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, together with the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC), is hoping to find out with a panel discussion on 29 April. Panellists will explore the challenges facing foreign and local reporters, the pros and cons of embedded reporting and the role of reporting in shaping Canadian public opinion and policy. Speakers include Graeme Smith, a Canadian reporter credited with sparking debate in Canada about the moral and legal parameters of Canada’s mission in Afghanistan.
See: http://www.cjfe.org/releases/2009/28042009wpfd.html

“The recent conviction of Iranian-American journalist Roxana Saberi in a sham espionage trial in Iran puts a human face on the declining state of press freedom, both in the Islamic republic and the world overall,” says Freedom House. Freedom House is launching its 2009 Freedom of the Press survey on 1 May, which will highlight Saberi’s case and other emblematic stories. Has media freedom in the 195 countries and territories regressed for a seventh straight year? Find out when the results are released on 1 May at Newseum in Washington, D.C., in front of Freedom House’s massive (36-feet-wide!) press freedom map. Bookmark: http://www.freedomhouse.org

Other activities:

— IFEX interim member the Association of Caribbean MediaWorkers (ACM) will be in Grenada on 14-15 May, commemorating World Press Freedom Day in the company of UNESCO Caribbean, as well as the Caribbean Broadcasting Union and the Caribbean Institute for Media and Communication: http://www.acmediaworkers.com/

— Canadian journalists facing threats to their right to free expression, as well as international cartoonists whose work illustrates that right, will be honoured at the World Press Freedom Awards, handed out by the Canadian Committee for World Press Freedom, in Ottawa on 5 May. Media outlets can download copies of the winning and runner-up cartoons, on the theme of “Protecting Privacy?” — a concept used by government bodies to deny releasing information to the public, here: http://www.ccwpf-cclpm.ca/cartoons-2009

— The Center for International Media Assistance gave the floor to the Committee to Protect Journalists and the International News Safety Institute to lead a discussion on the “Dangerous Truth” — safeguarding journalists — on 29 April at the U.S. Congress in Washington, D.C. See:
http://cima.ned.org/860/world-press-freedom-day-2009.html

ASIA-PACIFIC

The Federation of Nepali Journalists with UNESCO Kathmandu is gearing up to host its South Asian neighbours to discuss their shared experiences at a regional conference in Kathmandu on 3-4 May. Three themes are on the table: media freedom, including security and impunity, how the media contributes to dialogue, and the role of the media in countries in transition.
Participants from Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Pakistan are coming to the celebration, which will also honour three prominent Nepali journalists with the “Press Freedom Fighter” award. See: http://www.fnjnepal.org/

The International Federation of Journalists and the South Asia Media Solidarity Network will also be on hand to present their seventh annual South Asia press freedom report, “Under Fire: Press Freedom in South Asia 2008-2009″. The report, available on 3 May, records a worrying decline in press freedom across the seven countries assessed — no surprises there, considering the tumultuous year the region’s had: http://asiapacific.ifj.org/

Case in point: Pakistan. The Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF) with UNESCO Islamabad is organising a 3 May conference to highlight the challenges to free expression in Pakistan during these unstable times. Prominent journalists will put chief guest, the former Minister of Information and Broadcasting Sherry Rehman, to the test. PPF will also announce the winner of its third Aslam Ali Award, worth 100,000 Rupees (US$1,300), which recognises a person or group that has made a notable contribution to the defence and promotion of press freedom in Pakistan. See: http://www.pakistanpressfoundation.org/

It’s no small feat that being the site of a continuing fierce political confrontation, Bangkok is playing host to two major events organised by IFEX members on 3 May at the Art and Culture Centre. The Southeast Asian Press Alliance (SEAPA) and UNESCO Bangkok join forces to highlight the importance of freedom of expression and media independence, especially during and after conflicts and crises. Speakers will talk about the post-conflict role of journalists after the Khmer Rouge regime in Cambodia, President Suharto in Indonesia, and President Marcos in the Philippines.

SEAPA and UNESCO will also present a website of banned materials of the region, which can be accessed from SEAPA’s site in the coming days: http://www.seapabkk.org

At the same time, the Thai Journalists Association is organising a panel with a national focus, looking at the situation of media independence in Thailand, where “the government is walking a tight rope of political tension.” See: http://www.tja.or.th/

Just this month, Indonesia’s Supreme Court ruled in favour of “Time” magazine in a US$106-million defamation suit filed by former President Suharto for a story that accused him of amassing billions during his rule. So it’s only fitting that this World Press Freedom Day, the Alliance of Independent Journalists (AJI), who campaigned tirelessly on the case, is tackling one of the biggest threats to press freedom in the country — criminal defamation — in an event at the Jakarta Media Centre on 6 May.

Also look out for AJI’s 2009 Press Freedom report, which will be unveiled at the event. See: http://www.ajiindonesia.org/

If you happen to be frequenting Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia between 15 April and 15 May, keep your eyes peeled for eye-catching banners and billboards that reference the Mongolia Constitution and Media Freedom Law as well as UNESCO’s declarations on free expression. The signs, care of IFEX’s member in Mongolia Globe International and UNESCO Beijing, are just one tactic in Globe’s “For Fair and Responsible Journalism” campaign, aimed at raising public awareness of the importance of a free and independent media. The campaign also involves the “We want to tell the truth!” event on 30 April, where journalism students can take media leaders and politicians to task on Mongolia’s censorship, media concentration and lack of self-regulation issues. For those who can’t make it, Globe is also publishing its 2008 media freedom report, which will be made available on Globe’s website: http://www.globeinter.org.mn/

“Building Courage under Fire”: that’s the apt title of a regional event in the Pacific being put on by Pacific Freedom Forum, UNESCO and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community, with support from IFEX, on 6-8 May in Apia, Samoa. The event was originally meant to take place in Suva, Fiji on 3 May, but Fiji’s declaration of emergency rule and an ensuing clampdown on the media actually made holding the event illegal. Delegates from Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Palau, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu and Vanuatu will descend on Apia to gather the latest info, skills and contacts to protect and promote media freedom in their home countries. See: http://www.pacificfreedomforum.blogspot.com/

The Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance (MEAA) in Australia knows that good food is the way to your wallet. That’s why it’s hosting its annual press freedom dinner on 1 May in Sydney, with all proceeds going to the Alliance Safety and Solidarity Fund, which assists journalists and their families across the dangerous Asia-Pacific region. Thanks to the fund, last year the children of a dozen journalists killed in Nepal during the country’s decade-long civil war were able to go to school. Over dinner, MEAA will unveil “Secrecy and Red Tape: The State of Press Freedom in Australia 2009″, an analysis of the successes and shortcomings of press freedom in Australia. It’s available from 1 May here: http://www.alliance.org.au/documents/pf09.pdf

Other activities:

— IFEX interim member the Centre for Independent Journalism in Malaysia is organising a public forum at Central Market in Kuala Lumpur on 10 May on “Media Under Najib: Hope or Disappointment?” What options does the Prime Minister have, vis-à-vis clamours for reform on one side and status quo on the other, and can he deliver? See: http://www.cijmalaysia.org/

— The Cambodian Association for the Protection of Journalists is expecting 200 participants at a seminar on 4 May where local journalists will discuss their challenges and the importance of free expression in a developing country. Contact: umsarin (@) hotmail.com

— The National Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP) is once again organising a wreath-laying ceremony at Plaridel Shrine in San Nicolas, Bulakan on 3 May in memory of the 100 journalists who have been killed “since democracy was supposedly restored in 1986,” says NUJP. Those planning on attending the ceremony should wear white. See: http://www.nujp.org/

— Who’s more important to democracy, journalists or politicians? Three members from New Zealand’s Parliament will mull over the question with three respected broadcasters on 4 May in Parliament. Proceeds of the debate, conducted by the Engineering, Printing and Manufacturing Union, IFJ Asia-Pacific and the Parliamentary Press Gallery, will go to MEAA’s Alliance Safety and Solidarity Fund. See: http://www.epmu.org.nz/

EUROPE AND CENTRAL ASIA

It looks like a bullet-proof vest, but it’s made of newspaper so doesn’t offer any protection at all. That’s the image in an ad aimed at raising awareness of the dangers journalists face in many countries as they go about uncovering corruption, organised crime, government incompetence, financial wrongdoing and more. The ad, along with a package of other materials like interviews, articles and essays, is being offered by the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) on the theme “Journalists in the Firing Line”, and is yours for publishing on 3 May. The free materials can be downloaded in five languages — English, French, Spanish, German and Russian, at: http://www.worldpressfreedomday.org

Taking up the theme of violence against journalists, the International Federation of Journalists has renewed its agreement with the Brussels-based Vintu Foundation to provide humanitarian assistance to 10 families of journalists and media workers from around the world killed on duty. See: http://tinyurl.com/cbxbw5

The International Press Institute (IPI) is using World Press Freedom Day to name the winner of its 2009 Free Media Pioneer Award. This year’s award goes to… “Novaya Gazeta”, the crusading Moscow newspaper that has literally paid with staff members’ lives to bring us in-depth, independent reporting. According to IPI, four of the paper’s correspondents have been killed in the past decade, including the iconic Anna Politkovskaya. It’s no wonder Russia is Europe’s deadliest country for journalists. “Novaya Gazeta” has endured threats and government investigations but continues to probe human rights abuses, corruption and the Kremlin’s tough policies in Russia’s restive North Caucasus republics. See: http://tinyurl.com/dhh8lr

IPS Communication Foundation, better known as BIANET, will be making the case for “Freedom of the Press and Freedom of Speech in Turkey on the Road to the EU” at a conference of the same name on 3-4 May in Istanbul. At that time, BIANET’s quarterly report on free expression and press freedom in Turkey will be available in Turkey and English on BIANET’s website:
http://bianet.org/english

The Institute of Mass Information (IMI) has come out with a damning “chronicle of confrontation for 2008″ between the press and the authorities in the Ukraine. Despite last year’s conviction of three police officers in the 2000 killing of journalist Giorgiy Gongadze, an outspoken journalist who was highly critical of then-President Leonid Kuchma, the masterminds are still at large. But the biggest offender last year was the economic crisis, which has led to many journalists being the target of salary cuts, arrears in wages and dismissals. The crisis gave the media the chance to “discharge first” those journalists and editors who were independent, says IMI. Find out who the other “Predators of Press Freedom in Ukraine” are later this week on IMI’s site: http://eng.imi.org.ua/

IFEX member Mizzima News, a Burmese news agency in exile in India and Thailand, is trekking to Stockholm to visit Sida (Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency) on 29 April to talk about Burma’s emerging independent media, and the importance of media in exile to report on countries where press freedom is violated. Attendees can catch “Burma VJ”, a documentary co-produced by Mizzima’s own Soe Myint on the power of protests in Burma. It’s also where Frank La Rue, the UN’s special rapporteur on free expression, will be before heading to Doha for UNESCO’s main event. See: http://www.mizzima.com

On 3 May Adil Soz, IFEX’s member in Kazakhstan, will be revealing the winners of its third annual caricature contest, an event that has actually revived a dying art: the editorial cartoon. Adil Soz has teamed up with free expression groups in the region, including the Public Association “Journalists” (PAJ) in Kyrgyzstan and the National Association of Independent Mass Media, Tajikistan (NANSMIT) to collate the finest depictions of free expression in the region into a calendar. The groups will distribute 1,000 copies to media outlets and local and international media advocacy organisations. The Central Asian groups have also run an essay contest on free expression. Perhaps some of the young activists who were detained in Almaty, Kazakhstan last week for planning a 3 May protest on Internet censorship will share their experiences. After 3 May, winning entries of both contests can be viewed here:
http://www.adilsoz.kz/?id=207&lan=english

Other activities:

— PAJ is inviting all journalists to attend a billiards tournament in Bishkek. Apparently, billiard tournaments for journalists have become a tradition in Kyrgyzstan on 3 May, a way to foster solidarity among reporters and promote media workers’ rights. See: http://www.monitoring.kg

— NANSMIT is meeting roundtable-style in Dushanbe, Tajikistan on 3 May to discuss three hot issues that affect Tajikistan’s press freedom: the financial crisis, decriminalisation of defamation and media self-regulation. See: http://www.eng.nansmit.tj/

— The International Journalists’ Network (IJNet) wants to know if the role of media really is to promote tolerance, understanding, and an acceptance of diversity, as UNESCO calls for. Or is the media’s role simply to report the facts, even if such facts breed mistrust or fuel divides? Post your comments here: http://tinyurl.com/c559dr

MIDDLE EAST AND NORTH AFRICA

Many of IFEX’s Middle East and North Africa members will be in Doha to attend official UNESCO events — the Egyptian Organization of Human Rights, the Bahrain Center of Human Rights (BCHR), the Arabic Network of Human Rights Information and the Observatory for the Freedom of the Press, Publishing and Creation (OLPEC) from Tunisia. (See the programme here:
http://tinyurl.com/d6cd7k )

One member who is conspicuously absent is the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ). IFJ is refusing to attend because “the event is held in a country which supports an international media freedom centre, but which refuses to allow local journalists to form their own independent union or association,” said IFJ. Instead, IFJ will be in Bahrain, where it has opened a regional office to campaign for ethical journalism. See: http://tinyurl.com/cept4j

IFJ is also calling for a radical overhaul of media laws in the Middle East, many of which lead to the jailing of journalists. Check out “Breaking the Chains”, IFJ’s annual report on press freedom violations in the Arab world, which documents the cases of jailed journalists in the past year and the key legal articles that need reform: http://tinyurl.com/dbgwvw

Meanwhile, disgusted with the government’s continuing onslaught on free expression in Bahrain — websites are being banned, writers prosecuted and human rights defenders prevented from speaking to the media — BCHR is fighting back. One of the ringleaders of the clampdown is Bahrain’s Minister of Information and Culture, Mai al-Khalifa, who strangely has won many awards for her support of “culture” and “openness”. BCHR is circulating a petition demanding that al-Khalifa’s prizes be withdrawn, and is calling on the government to stop breaching its human rights commitments. See: http://www.bahrainrights.org/en

Together with UNESCO’s regional office and with support from IFEX, IFEX’s member in Lebanon, Maharat, is organising an event on 7 May to tackle why Lebanon has continued to slip in regional press freedom rankings. Be sure to get a copy of Maharat’s 2008 report on the status of freedom of opinion and expression in Lebanon, which combines legal data as well as first-hand interviews with Lebanese journalists and media organisations. See: http://www.maharatfoundation.org/

Other activities:

— In Palestine, look out for the “Free Media, Free Country” poster, which is being plastered throughout Palestine and in media outlets during May by the Palestinian Centre for Development & Media Freedoms (MADA): http://www.madacenter.org/en/

http://www.mediachannel.org/wordpress/2009/05/01/world-press-freedom-day-2009-focus-on-media-dialogu

A report by the U.S.-based watchdog Freedom House says the global financial crisis is having a negative impact on freedom of the press.

The 2009 Freedom of the Press Index, released ahead of World Press Freedom Day on May 3, indicates that while press freedom in open societies is being affected mostly in terms of decreased funding, in countries with oppressive governments, the crisis is providing new tools for further strengthening the leadership’s grip on the media.

According to the index, which rates 195 countries worldwide, the biggest drop in press freedom was witnessed in Central and Eastern Europe, in addition to most of the former Soviet Union.

The Freedom House index assesses the countries included in the survey by measuring the degree of print, broadcast, and Internet freedom available through a single calendar year. It provides numerical rankings and rates each country’s media as «Free,» «Partly Free,» or «Not Free.»

According to the report, which summarizes countries’ performances during 2008, concluded that 56 percent of people living in the combined region of Central and Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union (FSU), excluding the Baltic States, live in media environments that are «Not Free.»

But while the countries in the region share a common history of communist oppression, the trajectory of countries in the FSU diverged significantly in 2008 from that of Central and Eastern Europe in terms of respect for fundamental political rights and civil liberties.

The press freedom ratings for these sub-regions reflect a similar divergence.

Repressive Governments

Christopher Walker, Freedom House’s director of studies and one of the authors of the index, tells RFE/RL that former communist states in Central Europe such as the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland are clearly designated as “Free” and have remained so throughout the crisis.

But in Eastern Europe, and particularly in the countries of the FSU, where press freedom has been experiencing a slow but steady decline for years, the economic turmoil has exacerbated the trend.
All in all, the system isn’t enabling a meaningful discussion of alternative issues in Russia

“The ongoing trajectory of media freedom in the region suggests that there’s been a consolidation of unfree media environments in the former Soviet Union,» Walker said.

«And this has significant implications at a time when the global economy is playing a role in the health of independent media… In already vulnerable media environments there are even larger questions about independent media’s ability to function in the former Soviet Union.”

In more repressive settings, Walker says, authorities have always enjoyed near-complete control over allocating resources and using the legal system to manipulate media.

Now, with funding drying up, it is even easier for repressive governments to reward complacent media outlets on the one hand, and penalize dissenting voices on the other.

Russia Downturn

Russia continues to be the media-crackdown leader among the FSU countries, and has passed the trend on to a number of neighboring states.

Russia has been on a gradual decline in media freedom since 2003, when it was downgraded from a “Partly Free” to a “Not Free” country.

“What we’ve seen is really a systematic and consistent constriction of Russia’s media over the last several years, including last year, where Russia also underwent a slight downturn for a number of reasons — including the absence of independent judiciary to ensure that media freedoms are upheld, and ongoing self-censorship, which has been a growing problem over the course of recent years,» Walker said.

«All in all, the system isn’t enabling a meaningful discussion of alternative issues in Russia.”

Ten out of 12 of the non-Baltic post-Soviet states are ranked as «Not Free.» Three of the world’s 10 worst press-freedom abusers — Belarus, Uzbekistan, and Turkmenistan — are found in the former Soviet Union.

Azerbaijan is another country which attracted significant media attention in 2008 because of several cases when journalists have been imprisoned for their work but then released.

Walker of Freedom House notes this as a “positive development,” but says it’s insufficient to indicate major change in Azerbaijan’s continued clampdown on the media, which last year included a ban on foreign broadcasters, including the BBC, Voice of America, and RFE/RL.

“One of the things that we cited in our review of Azerbaijan, as part of the larger pattern of media suppression, were the steps taken to remove a number of international broadcasters from the airwaves in Azerbaijan,» Walker said.

«So, if we look at the broader picture of media freedom in Azerbaijan, the release of journalists that’s just occurred in the larger institutional picture are a small but positive step in an otherwise highly repressed media environment.”

Central Asia has been for years one of the weakest regions for free media, and 2008 was not an exception, says Walker.

While it comes as little surprise that frequent human-rights and press-freedom abusers like Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan have again been given the lowest possible rankings, Kyrgyzstan, one of the brighter spots in Central Asia, underwent a two-point decline in 2008.

“That was principally a result of its decision to remove Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty from the state broadcaster, but it follows a larger pattern of pressure that we’ve seen on independent media outlets in the country,” Walker said.

Lack of an independent judiciary and the inability of the judiciary to protect journalists remains a serious concern in many of the FSU states, where reporters continue to put their personal safety at risk.

Nikola Krastev, Radio Liberty / Radio Free Europe

Источник: http://www.rferl.org/content/Financial_Crisis_Causing_Drop_In_Media_Freedom_Worldwide/1620201.html

Washington — Now that the World Digital Library has been launched on the Internet, its creators want to add new partners and content from every country in the world.

Inaugurated April 21 at the headquarters of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris, the World Digital Library (WDL) includes about 1,200 documents from more than two dozen libraries and institutions in 19 countries. The response on launch day was “tremendous,” says John Van Oudenaren of the U.S. Library of Congress. “We had over 7 million page views, 615,000 unique viewers. We had people [accessing the site] from every country in the world.”

A collaborative project of the Library of Congress, UNESCO and more than 30 global partners, the WDL focuses on significant primary materials such as manuscripts, maps, rare books, sound recordings, films, prints, photographs and architectural drawings, all in their original languages. The site’s interface — including its search functions and explanatory material — is in seven languages: Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Spanish and Russian. (See “World Digital Library Offers Cultural Treasures from Around Globe.”)

“One of the big challenges for the future,” Van Oudenaren said, “is to add new partners so that we have some partners from every country in the world, and also to add content.”

He said that in advance of the launch, Librarian of Congress James H. Billington wrote to “every national librarian and every national archivist in the world” informing them about the project and inviting them to discuss partnerships, and UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura did the same in letters to cultural ministers in every UNESCO country.

“The only way we’re going to turn it into a genuine world digital library is to get everybody aboard,” Van Oudenaren, senior adviser for the WDL at the Library of Congress, told America.gov April 27.

Earlier, he held a digital video conference with information resource professionals at the INFOS 2009 conference in Bratislava, Slovakia. The University Library in Bratislava, a WDL partner, contributed items from the Bašagić Collection of Islamic Manuscripts. That collection is included on the UNESCO Memory of the World register, which seeks to preserve valuable archive holdings throughout the world.

“There are a number of UNESCO Memory of the World items on the World Digital Library,” Van Oudenaren said, “and that’s the kind of material — special, unique, important cultural material — that we want to be focusing on as we move forward.”

While the WDL includes rare books, “this is not a mass book-digitization project,” Van Oudenaren said. The books complement other cultural content or are cultural artifacts themselves. Some examples are the first known South American imprint, Pragmatica, a four-page edict issued by King Philip II of Spain in 1584; the Devil’s Bible (Codex Gigas), created in the early 13th century in Bohemia (now the Czech Republic); and the first printed edition of the classic Japanese work Genji monogatari (Tale of Genji), 1596–1615.

“We’re hoping that [the WDL] increases the amount of non-English and international content on the Internet,” Van Oudenaren said. “We wanted to make sure we had a good representation from all the different cultures and not just Western culture.” One of the main goals of the project is to promote better understanding between cultures, its creators have emphasized.

The WDL also aims to help bridge the digital divide by helping developing countries acquire the technical capability to digitize their cultural and historical collections, Van Oudenaren said.

REACHING OUT TO YOUNG PEOPLE

Because the World Digital Library is intended as an educational resource, especially for students and other young people, it has been designed to appeal to computer-savvy users. “We did a lot of work in optimizing speed and functionality,” Van Oudenaren said. “Young people are conditioned by fast, highly functional commercial sites. … They don’t want to click on something and wait for five minutes while it shows up.”

Additionally, young people “don’t just want to be passive viewers of Web sites, they want to share things with their friends, and so we’ve provided those options,” he said. Every document on the WDL has a link with “no fewer than 46 different options — everything from simple printing and downloading to Twittering, Facebooking and so on — to let you share it with your friends.”

“If you want to be relevant and you want to do some good in terms of helping people understand each other better, you’ve got to reach out to young people,” Van Oudenaren said.

“We’ll be listening to what people have to say about what they like, what they don’t like, and we’ll be continuing to improve and adding features,” he said.

The World Digital Library Web site was developed by the Library of Congress, with some technical assistance on Arabic search and other issues from the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Alexandria, Egypt, Van Oudenaren said. Partners contribute content, share technology or provide other services.

Funding comes from private sources, including Google Inc., the Qatar Foundation, the Carnegie Corporation of New York, the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology in Saudi Arabia, Microsoft Inc., the Lawrence and Mary Anne Tucker Foundation and the Bridging Nations Foundation.

US Embassy to Tajikistan

Washington — If journalists are persecuted, imprisoned or killed, society as a whole is the victim, say media and democracy advocates speaking in advance of World Press Freedom Day.

The United Nations highlighted the importance of a free media by establishing World Press Freedom Day in 1993, setting aside May 3 each year to remember slain and imprisoned journalists. This year’s theme is the safety of journalists.

Acting Assistant Secretary of State for Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Karen Stewart told America.gov that “by attacking journalists you are attacking a very basic fundamental of a free society,” the right of citizens to have free and open access to information.

“And without those freedoms you cannot have democracy,” the former ambassador to Belarus said April 27. In Belarus, “the embassy worked very hard to support journalists in very trying, repressive circumstances with programs like legal assistance training and funding of external radio operations.”

An independent media brings transparency and accountability to government — indispensable elements for a healthy economy as well as democracy, Stewart said.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists reports that in 2008 some 41 journalists were killed while doing their jobs and 125 were imprisoned. A new trend, according to the organization, is “the arrest of Internet journalists — bloggers, Web-based reporters and online editors [who] now account for more than one-third of the journalists jailed around the globe.”

Don Podesta, consulting manager and editor for the Center for International Media Assistance (CIMA), a part of the National Endowment for Democracy (NED), also highlighted the importance of journalistic freedom.

Podesta, a former Washington Post reporter and foreign correspondent in South America, said Americans “have to promote free and independent media around the world, and that means protecting journalists, because you can’t have robust democracies without them — it’s that simple.”

CIMA’s main goal, Podesta said, is “to help journalists in the developing world by providing information, networks and research on the important role of media in sustaining democracies around the world.”

A 2008 report compiled by CIMA/NED called “Empowering Independent Media” states that in many political settings, “violence against journalists is prevalent.”

Some of the reasons for this include:

• Media laws are often weak and selectively enforced.

• Governments control and censor the media.

• Cooperation for access to information is lacking.

• Too few lawyers are willing to defend or protect journalists.

Carl Gershman, president of the NED, said, “If journalists are being harassed and even killed with impunity, then nothing we [nongovernmental organizations] do to improve their professionalism will be enough to ensure a free press.”

The danger for the press, especially investigative reporters, is “greater today than ever, especially in Somalia, Iraq and Russia,” Gershman said. “It is a difficult time with a lot of repression from governments fighting what they see as threats from an independent media.”

As a show of bipartisan support for international press freedom, U.S. lawmakers set up the Congressional Caucus for Freedom of the Press in May 2006. The aim of the caucus is to advance press freedom worldwide by combating censorship and the persecution of journalists. The caucus is co-chaired by Senator Richard Lugar (Republican of Indiana), Senator Chris Dodd (Democrat of Connecticut), Representative Adam Schiff (Democrat of California) and Representative Mike Pence (Republican of Indiana).

In a press release, Dodd said, “Journalists and representatives of the press are on the front lines of freedom of information. When they are harmed or intimidated, the victim is not only them but democracy.”

Schiff said, “Where there is no freedom of the press, there is no freedom.” He added, “Journalists should not have to work in fear of governments throwing them in jail or harming them or their families simply for doing their job.”

US Embassy to Tajikistan

U.S. remembers journalists who were killed in quest to make truth known

United States Mission to the OSCE

World Press Freedom Day

As delivered by Chargé d’ Affaires Kyle Scott

to the Permanent Council, Vienna

April 30, 2009

This weekend, we mark World Press Freedom Day. We do so with a somber note, for, as we acknowledge and praise media workers around the globe for their public service, we also remember those who have been harassed, jailed, physically assaulted, and even killed in the quest to make the truth known.

Media workers worldwide put themselves in harm’s way, and not just in war zones. In countries around the globe, journalists risk their lives on a daily basis, when they shine a light into dark corridors of government corruption, expose intolerance, or otherwise displease powerful figures with something to hide. The ugly and unacceptable reality is that those who murder journalists – those who silence voices vital to democracy and freedom – far, far too often are getting away with it.

In its recently published 2009 Impunity Index, the Committee to Protect Journalists focuses on the disturbing trend of the murder of journalists that remain unsolved. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, on average, only one out of ten times is someone convicted when a journalist is murdered. In many cases, governments simply fail to act at all. In even more disturbing instances, governments may actually be involved in the murder or cover-up. This failure to aggressively pursue these crimes and prosecute the perpetrators sends a message to the killers that they can act with impunity – that they will not be brought to justice.

No country should be complacent about violence against journalists. In the United States, we witnessed in 2007 the shocking murder of an investigative reporter, Chauncey Bailey, in California. The full dimensions of this crime are only slowly being unraveled as the investigation, and the controversy over its handling by local law enforcement authorities, continues. In 2008, six journalists were killed in OSCE participating States because of their work, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. We call on these OSCE participating States to hold the killers accountable. According to that same NGO, sixteen journalists have been murdered in the Russian Federation alone since 1999 because of their reporting on crime, unrest, and corruption. Of these sixteen killings, only one case has been resolved.

The United States again commends the repeated efforts of the Representative on Freedom of the Media to sound the alarm on this growing problem and to remind OSCE participating States of our OSCE commitments on press freedom. As Miklos Harazsti has said, «Attempts at silencing critical voices with the help of violence should be seen and handled by law enforcement not as ordinary crimes, but as acts aimed to undermine the basic democratic value of free expression.»

It is with this sentiment in mind that we should all pause to commemorate World Press Freedom Day and pledge to work together to turn our OSCE commitments into living reality.

Thank you, Madam Chairwoman.

Read more: http://www.america.gov/st/texttrans-english/2009/April/20090430143624eaifas0.1451837.html#ixzz0EbTlDQG1&B

US Embassy to Tajikistan