New UN resolution on safety of journalists

Reporters Without Borders welcomes a new resolution on the safety of journalists that the United Nations Human Rights Council adopted today. Proposed by several countries, including France and Austria, it was co-sponsored by more than 90 countries. The new resolution is more specific and concrete about the measures that should be adopted to better protect journalists, and calls on member states “to promote a safe and enabling environment for journalists to perform their work independently.” It says journalists must be protected in peacetime as well as wartime, condemns illegal or arbitrary surveillance of their communications, and calls on states to take concrete measures to combat impunity and to create preventive protection mechanisms. All of these items were among the recommendations submitted by Reporters Without Borders. Like all of the Human Rights Council’s decisions, this resolution is not binding. So that it is not just a statement of principle, UN member states must move into action and must create mechanisms for monitoring compliance with their obligations. ------------------ PR - 09/16/2014 RWB issues recommendations on safety of news providers AS the UN Human Rights Council prepares to debate a resolution on the safety of journalists during its 27th session, Reporters Without Borders has called for preventive measures, protection for non-professional as well as professional journalists and greater efforts to combat impunity in the recommendations on this subject that it issued today. RWB will also stress the need to protect all news and information providers when it participates in a Human Rights Council panel discussion on 18 September on the “role of prevention in the promotion and protection of human rights.” According to RWB’s tally, 50 journalists have been killed worldwide since the start of this year while 71 were killed last year. The worst year ever was 2012, with a total of 88 journalists and 50 netizens killed. “Governments must now, as a matter of urgency, take concrete measures because the principles have been accepted and the protection of journalists is unquestionably enshrined in international resolutions and treaties,” Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Christophe Deloire said. “The creation of mechanisms for implementing international law, the establishment of preventive measures such as emergency alert mechanisms, and the adoption of effective and specialized investigative methods are all essential.” RWB’s recommendations stress the need to create procedures for monitoring compliance with UN Security Council Resolution 1738, which says governments must end impunity for crimes of violence against journalists by bringing those responsible to trial To this end, governments must establish investigative and prosecutorial procedures that are effective. Creating a special adviser to the UN secretary-general or a similar position would be way to monitor that governments are complying with their obligations in this respect. Bloggers and other netizens must receive the same protection as journalists if they are providing the public with news and information. The issue of surveillance of communications must be addressed when considering the safety of journalists, and more training must be given in both physical and digital safety. Reporters Without Borders also calls for the adoption of concrete preventive measures to protect journalists and netizens. The creation of protection programmes, emergency alert and evacuation mechanisms and protected shelters would help prevent violence against news providers who have been threatened. The proposed resolution that the Human Rights Council’s members will examine on 24 September will be the council’s third on the safety of journalists. The first (Resolution 13/24) was adopted on 26 March 2010. The second (Resolution 21/12) was adopted on 26 September 2012. Many UN resolutions have been adopted in the past eight years with the aim of improving protection for journalists, from Security Council Resolution 1738 in 2006 to the General Assembly resolution of 18 December 2013. Reporters Without Borders presented its recommendations to delegations during a Security Council panel discussion on the safety of journalists on 13 December 2013. It also gave the Human Rights Council a written submission on this subject during its 24th session in September 2013 (A/HRC/24/NGO/32) and again during its 26th session in June 2014 (A/HRC/26/NGO/4).