Two UN Special Rapporteurs have called for greater protection for media professionals, referring to the unacceptably high number of attacks against those disseminating news, including torture, arrests, killings and sexual violence against female journalists.
Both UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression Frank La Rue and UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Christof Heyns made the call in a joint report they issued at the UN headquarters in New York.
La Rue and Heyns’ also presented a report to the United Nations Human Rights Council, which stated that two thirds of deaths of journalists happened outside of armed conflict.
The report highlighted that the plight of political journalists, who are at greatest risk of attack away from international scrutiny should be taken note of on a broader international scale.
La Rue noted that,
See our earlier post: Government accuses media rights group of fraud (22 June 2012)
Both UN Special Rapporteur on freedom of opinion and expression Frank La Rue and UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions Christof Heyns made the call in a joint report they issued at the UN headquarters in New York.
La Rue and Heyns’ also presented a report to the United Nations Human Rights Council, which stated that two thirds of deaths of journalists happened outside of armed conflict.
The report highlighted that the plight of political journalists, who are at greatest risk of attack away from international scrutiny should be taken note of on a broader international scale.
La Rue noted that,
‘States continue to utilize criminal laws on defamation, national security and counterterrorism to suppress dissent and criticism, including on Government policies, human rights violations and allegations of corruption...Heyns went on to say that,
such ‘judicial harassment’ generates a climate of fear and encourages self-censorship'.’
‘impunity is the largest factor in the safety of journalists… to elevate these problems on an international level is to make sure impunity is addressed’Special rapporteurs are correspondents appointed by the UN human rights Council to report back on either a country’s current situation or a specific human rights theme. The position is an unpaid honorary title and the experts are not UN staff.
`The countries where the highest numbers of journalists are killed are also, almost without exception, those with the highest levels of impunity.'
See our earlier post: Government accuses media rights group of fraud (22 June 2012)