Warnings over increasing media surveillanceThe World Association of Newspapers has called on democratic governments to take specific measures to protect freedom of the press in the face of widespread tightening of anti-terrorism measures. WAN also issued several resolutions specifically highlighting abuse of media freedoms in various countries, one of them being Zimbabwe. A resolution issued by WAN in Cape Town at the 60th annual congress and World Editor's Forum (WEF) meeting read: "WAN believes that though balancing the sometimes conflicting interests of security and freedom might be difficult, democracies have an absolute responsibility to use a rigorous set of standards to judge whether curbs on freedom can be justified by security concerns." Concerned with increasing surveillance measures, WAN called on all democratic governments and their agencies to take seven specific steps to protect press freedom while tightening anti-terrorism measures:
Read the full resolution at www.wan-press.org/article14263.html. Zimbabwe condemnedZimbabwe has come up time and again in the conference , and WAN issued a resolution on the persecution of the media in that country. The WAN board strongly condemned the continuing harassment, forceful arrest, detention and torture of journalists and the overall repressive government policy against a free press in Zimbabwe: “The recurrent violations of journalists' basic rights and the complete disregard for the rule of law of the Zimbabwean leadership and law enforcement agencies are unacceptable. WAN is also alarmed by the recent assaults against human rights lawyers representing journalists in court. “WAN is appalled by the 29 March abduction and murder of former Zimbabwe state broadcaster ZBC cameraman Edward Chikombo, whose killing might be related to the leaking of footage of police brutality against opposition activists earlier that month,” the WAN statement read. WAN as well condemns the recent threat of reprisal made by the Information Ministry to foreign correspondents over what it considered to be “fabricated stories.” “In its policy to suppress press freedom and to asphyxiate the very last private media, the government is assisted by the Media Information Commission (MIC), which disrupts independent newspapers and strips journalists from their accreditation. In this context, WAN wishes to praise the rulings regularly made by Zimbabwean courts, including the Harare High Court, to quash abusive MIC decisions. “ The Board of WAN calls on President Robert Mugabe to put an end to arbitrary and violent arrest, detention and torture of journalists, to firmly commit to the rule of law and to uphold international standards of freedom of expression and freedom of the press in Zimbabwe. UN protestThe Board of the World Association of Newspapers has strongly protested the 30 March 2007 approval of a resolution by the United Nations Human Rights Council that "attempts to justify censorship of free speech under the guise of protecting religious sensibilities". WAN is concerned that this resolution will be used by authoritarian governments to justify suppression of freedom of expression on the grounds of religious defamation. It moreover believes that it is wholly inappropriate for the Human Rights Council to justify censorship and the stifling of dissenting voices. The resolution, sponsored by Pakistan on behalf of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference, condemns defamation of religions in general, although it mentions only Islam specifically. Presented as a measure to protect the religious sensibilities of Muslims, the resolution asserts that freedom of expression “should be exercised with responsibility and may therefore be subject to limitations as provided by law”. The resolution passed the Council by 24 votes to 14, with nine abstentions. The Board of WAN calls on the UN Human Rights Council President to take all necessary steps to ensure that international standards of freedom of expression are fully supported by the Council and not undermined by such resolution. Further protestWAN also issued five other resolutions, to protest against:
The Paris-based WAN, the global organisation for the newspaper industry, defends and promotes press freedom world-wide. It represents 18 000 newspapers; its membership includes 77 national newspaper associations, newspaper companies and individual newspaper executives in 102 countries, 12 news agencies and 10 regional and world-wide press groups. |