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Civil society efforts to monitor attacks against journalists showcased at UN High-level Political Forum
Representatives from civil society organizations on Friday called for joint efforts to protect journalists and ensure reliable information for all population groups at a time when the COVID-19 pandemic has affected media operations and the dissemination of information globally.
鈥淭he pandemic has shown how dangerous misinformation and 鈥榝ake news鈥 could be while the media provided timely and crucial information on ways to prevent the spread of the virus, on public health updates and, in combatting the literally life-threatening effect of misinformation,鈥 H.E. Ambassador Maria Theofili, Permanent Representative of Greece to the UN said, on behalf of the Group of Friends for the Protection of Journalists, at the opening of a side-event of the High-Level Political Forum 2021 dedicated to discussing important rights covered by SDG16.10, such as access to information and freedom of expression.
Naziha Syed Ali, head of the investigation team at Pakistan鈥檚 Dawn newspaper, recounted attacks against journalists in her country, including online harassment inflicted by 鈥渁rmies of social media trolls鈥.
Gilbert Sendungwa, who leads the Africa Freedom of Information Centre in Uganda, noted that 鈥渋nformation is critical in the prevention of the spread of the pandemic鈥 as he conducted research on the impacts of COVID-19 in Namibia, Nigeria, Sierra Leone, and Tunisia.
Dagmar Thiel, CEO at , expressed deep concern over troublesome trends regarding freedom of expression in Latin America. 鈥淭he pandemic has been used as an excuse for reducing transparency and restricting access to information, particularly in Bolivia, Brazil, El Salvador, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Peru, Venezuela鈥, said Thiel, whose organization is a member of Voces del Sur, a group of 13 organizations monitoring attacks against journalists in Latin America.
She also shared that is presenting the third shadow report tracking violations on freedom of expression and reporting progress on the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 16.10.
Guilherme Canela, Chief of Section for Freedom of Expression and Safety of Journalist at UNESCO, moderated the event and invited the panelists to reflect on how the new legislations against cybercrime, hate speech, and disinformation can also constrain the freedom of the press and weaken the work of the media.
Leon Willems and Guilherme Canela called attention to a toolkit that Free Press Unlimited is expected to launch together with UNESCO later this year to provide Civil Society Organizations tools to improve the monitoring of SDG16 and to produce shadow reports that will help Members States and partners to produce comprehensive and inclusive Voluntary National Reports.
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