austraLasia #2405


World Press Freedom Day 3rd May - of interest to us too!

EAO: 2nd May 2009 -- The UN-declared World Press Freedom Day will be celebrated worldwide on Sunday 3rd May.  UNESCO is the chief UN body responsible for this issue. It is appropriate for Salesians in the region to be aware of the day and to note that in at least (possibly more?) two states where Salesians are active in the region, there is no press freedom as this is understood, and amply explained and explored in the UN site on the matter http://www.un.org/Depts/dhl/press/ .
    There are two major Christian bodies, the one more generally Christian, the other expressly Catholic, who have made statements on these matters.  One is WACC, the World Association for Christian Communication, the other SIGNIS, which is the World Catholic Association for Communication.
    SIGNIS recently expressed its 'profound concerns' for the new laws in Fiji that prohibit local media from publishing stories that negatively depict the government led by the newly appointed Prime Minister Frank Bainimarama (after a matter of hours, reappointed after the Constitution was thrown out by the President, when his government was declared illegal by the Fijian judiciary!) . The SIGNIS statement says that it "stands by the principle that freedom of the media in Fiji and elsewhere is important even more because of the obligation it entails towards the citizens of that country than because of the rights it gives to the media".
    WACC has a broader statement on the "capacity of the 'fourth estate' to hold governments and public institutions accountable, to inform and alert....never more so than in an age of 24/7 digital communication".  It adds that "Press freedom is essential for the media to foster dialogue, challenge violations of human rights and the rule of law, and expose corruption. Press freedom is a matter of life and death. Already in 2009, Reporters without Borders has recorded the deaths of 18 journalists and the imprisonment of 143 journalists and 66 cyber-dissidents...The resurgence of official censorship in Fiji is of particular concern on this World Press Freedom Day".  Reporters without Borders adds its own separate voice to the Fiji concern, saying that "The military government is heading dangerously towards a Burmese-style system in which the media are permanently subject to prior censorship and other forms of obstruction".
    A good site, managed by SIGNIS, for looking at press freedom as an advocacy issue can be found at http://advocacynews.blogspot.com/2009/04/world-press-freedom-day-2009.html

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Title: australasia 2405
Subject and key words: EAO General Press Freedom Day
Date (year): 2009
ID: 2000-2099|2405