“International Federation of Journalists (IFJ)”Calls on Government to Stop Legal Prosecution on Journalists

On December 10 “International Federation of Journalists” (IFJ) stated that corresponding measures will be taken throughout the world to stop prosecution on journalists.

IFJ, world’s largest union of journalists, states that those governments which prosecute for slander and impose legal restrictions against critical journalists undermine social role of media that is revealing human rights violations.

In the statement dedicated to the UN International Human Rights Day, IFJ called for the new global campaign to cancel the laws restricting the printed media.

“The freedom of expression is essential human rights, “said Aidan White, Secretary General of IFJ.”Without this right we can not protect the rights listed in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It decreases the number of breached essential rights.

IFJ calls the governments for cutting an end to journalists’ prosecution that aimed at shutting down media investigations. “In many countries freedom of press is breached and we often have journalists charged for slander, causing threat to national security or discrediting of government or authorities. When such an assault occurs, everyone suffers, because the information becomes unavailable, journalists are hushed up and society loses the right to be informed,” states IFJ.

The federation also stated that violations of journalists’ rights mainly occur in authoritative regimes, though it sometimes happens in the countries with democratic system.

“We have seen a lot of legal cases in Europe and the USA where authorities prosecuted journalists in order to find out confidential source of information or simply to hush them up,” said the representative of IFJ.

As for other regions of the world, the assault on printed media is characteristic for those countries where the protection of human rights is strictly observed.

“It is high time to stop those violations. We can not hope to have an all-out protected human rights if journalists are prosecuted and the freedom of media is breached”, said Mr. White.

Source: Medie.ge