World Press Freedom Day: Press freedoms shrink, journalists targeted, says UN

UNITED NATIONS, United States: Press freedom is under attack in every corner of the globe, with journalists continually harassed, jailed and killed, UN officials and media outlets warned on Wednesday.

Speaking ahead of World Press Freedom Day on Wednesday, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres issued a rallying cry for journalists and media worldwide. “All our freedom depends on press freedom,” he said in a video message, calling it the “foundation of democracy and justice” and the “lifeblood of human rights.”

“But in every corner of the world, freedom of the press is under attack,” Guterres added, addressing a conference held at UN headquarters in New York. Highlighting the problem, Unesco awarded its 2023 World Press Freedom Prize to three Iranian women, two journalists and a human rights activist, who have been jailed.

While Guterres did not cast blame on specific countries, other speakers highlighted individual cases, such as that of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, detained in Russia on espionage charges he has rejected.

“The fight for press freedom, the fight for Evan´s release is a fight for everybody´s freedom,” Wall Street Journal publisher Almar Latour told the forum. Dozens of news organisations have denounced the charges against Gershkovich as unfounded, while US President Joe Biden has called his imprisonment “totally illegal.”

Other journalists hit upon the rising dangers of the profession. “I´m coming from a country, Iran, where being a journalist is a crime... (and) can land you in jail, can get you killed, can get you tortured,” said Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-American journalist living in exile.According to Reporters Without Borders, 55 journalists and four media workers were killed in the line of duty in 2022.

“Truth is threatened by disinformation and hate speech, seeking to blur the lines between fact and fiction, between science and conspiracy,” Guterres said. Journalists, he added, “are routinely harassed, intimidated, detained, and in prisons.” Others voiced similar concerns, with the head of Unesco, which is organising an event at the United Nations in New York on Wednesday to mark the occasion, also speaking out.