Press Freedom
CPJ Updates
- Police raid Cairo offices of Turkish Anadolu News Agency, arrest at least 4
- Ugandan police harass and detain journalists covering opposition politician Bobi Wine
- Journalist Patricia Kayuni assaulted while covering protest in Malawi
- Missing radio anchor found dead in Mexico’s Michoacán state
- Sudan suspends four news outlets over alleged financial link to Bashir regime
- Colombian magazine Semana alleges military spied on its journalists
- Montenegro reporters Živković and Raičević charged with criminal incitement
- Malawi detains, charges 3 journalists seeking to cover EU delegation’s return
- Journalists threatened, assaulted while covering local politician in Sierra Leone
Reporter Without Borders
- US – RSF calls on the Senate to reverse unprecedented restrictions on the press
- Two reporters arrested in Comoros, placed under judicial control
- Reporters Without Borders, Index on Censorship and Transparency International UK urge Azerbaijan to lift journalist’s travel ban
- Sudan closes four media outlets that supported former regime
- Does crisis at leading daily mean end to investigative journalism in Estonia?
- Reporter beaten and left for dead in northern Bangladesh
- Two Iraqi journalists shot dead after covering protests in Basra
- Constitutional Court hears case against controversial snooping law
United Nations Correspondents Association Statement on Press Freedom
United Nations Correspondents Association has issued a statement on press freedom following a recent surge of violence against journalists. UNCA President Pamela Falk is a member of the OPC.
A copy of the UNCA’s statement follows.
The U.N Correspondents Association is profoundly disturbed and saddened by the recent assaults on journalists around the world.
In view of the shocking multiple violations of the rights of journalists to cover world events, the U.N. Correspondents Association Executive Committee calls upon the United Nations, including the Secretariat, the Security Council and the General Assembly, as well as individual member nations, to defend the right of free expression and for journalists to report the news – without fear of death, detention, incarceration, or intimidation.
American journalist James Foley was beheaded by terrorists in Iraq. We join the Committee to Protect Journalists, and other professional organizations dedicated to press freedom, in condemning this barbaric act.
Last week, in Ferguson, Missouri, several local, national, and international journalists were subjected to threats, harassment, and detention by law enforcement, including Turkish journalist Bilgin Sasmas, a U.N. accredited reporter.
These events, and many more around the world, highlight different dimensions of a general failure to respect the individual human right to speak freely as well as the right of all people to receive news and information from journalists, who often risk their own safety to report on events.
Freedom of expression is an inherent human right, not a privilege.
These outrageous attacks shock the conscience. The U.N. Correspondents Association is calling on diplomats and world leaders to include the protection of journalists in U.N. Resolutions, as UNCA proposed earlier this year, and to protect and defend freedom of expression and journalists around the world.
The Executive Committee, U.N. Correspondents Association
August 22, 2014