ISLAMABAD- World Press Freedom Day was observed on May 3, in Pakistan as elsewhere in the world by devoting the day to the question of terrorism and media freedom.
To commemorate the day a press briefing was held in the Untied Nations Information Centre in Islamabad. Briefing news reporters, United Nations Educational, Social and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) Office In-charge Anjum-ul-Haq said that freedom of expression and independence of media is very much essential in the world.
She distributed a booklet by the international body of journalists ‘Reporters Sans Frontiers’ which provides guidelines to the local journalist how to dispense their professional responsibilities.
A joint message issued by the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, the Director General of the Unesco Koichiro Matsuura and the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson on the occasion said: “This year, World Press Freedom Day is devoted to the question of terrorism and media freedom and to those journalists who put themselves at serious risk, and sometimes pay the highest penalty, by exercising their profession.
The message also said, “In each of the past two years, more than 50 journalists have been killed while covering violent conflicts. Increasingly, such deaths are not the result of war’s accidents but the outcome of a deliberate targeting of journalists by those seeking to prevent media exposure of their criminal, corrupt or terrorist activists.”
“The cruel fate of Daniel Pearl, to cite just one tragic case, illustrates how dangerous the profession of journalism can be,” it added.
“The threat of terrorism to the freedom and independence of the media can be both direct and indirect. Terrorism all too often includes violent attacks on reporters and publishers, including assassinations, abductions, torture and bombings of media offices. We abhor such violence,” it said.
Basic freedom, human rights and democratic practices are the best guarantors of freedom. This protection must extend to press freedom and free speech as positive goods in themselves and as means through which the fight against terrorism may be waged. The greatest service that the media can perform in the fight against terrorism is to act freely, independently and responsibly, the message observed.
On world press freedom day we reaffirm that press freedom is an indispensable dimension of that wider freedom of expression that is each person’s birthright and one of the foundations for human progress, the message concluded.
Source: Business Recorder
Date:5/4/2002
