Broadcasters attending the fourth World Electronic Media Forum (WEMF 4) have called for sustained and concrete international action to address the murder of journalists in peacetime and in war.
“Most journalists are killed not in war zones but in their own countries as they try to shine the light of the truth into the darkest recesses of their societies,” they said in in a declaration adopted unanimously at the end of a two-day meeting in Mexico City.
The declaration, which will be put before the UN Secretary General, the President of the UN Security Council, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights and UNESCO, was drawn up after a presentation of the global situation by the Director of the International News Safety Institute, Rodney Pinder.
He recalled that more than 350 men and women in the news media had died trying to tell the story since WEMF 3 two called on UN member states to respect “in letter and spirit” the terms of Security Council Resolution 1738 of 2006 on the safety of journalists in conflict. That resolution also urged nations to end the culture of impunity which so often shields the killers of journalists.
More journalists have been killed in Mexico this year than in any other country in the Western hemisphere, many of them for reporting on drug trafficking and related corruption.
“Governments are primarily responsible for the safety of all their citizens, including those in the news media,” the declaration said. “They have a responsibility to protect those citizens, pursue their killers and ensure freedom of expression.”
The safety session at the conference also heard dramatic accounts of the plight of many journalists in Mexico and Latin America from Dario Ramirez, regional director of the press freedom organisation Article 19 and Argentine journalist and writer Olga Wornat.
Like its three predecessors – in Geneva (2003), Tunis (2005) and Kuala Lumpur (2007) – WEMF 4 was organized by the world’s eight regional broadcasting unions. (Source: INSI press release)