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EBU President calls for free expression, safety of journalists
(uniquement en anglais) EBU President Fritz Pleitgen called on broadcasters around the world on Monday to harness new technologies in embracing a vision in which free media promote and guarantee democracy, development and human rights. "Journalists are being killed in record numbers in pursuit of their profession - 171 so far this year - sometimes simply for getting too near to uncomfortable truths," the EBU President said, speaking on the International Day of Human Rights. "And if journalists stop telling the truth, or exercise self-censorship, there can be no true freedom of expression or genuine democratic debate." WEMF III is lead-organised by the Asia-Pacific Broadcasting Union, the EBU's leading sister union, under the theme "a new vision of broadcasting in the information society". WEMF I was organized by the EBU in Geneva in 2003 alongside the first phase of the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS). WEMF II followed in Tunis two years ago, with the second phases of the WSIS. Mr Pleitgen said that the information society challenged public service media to continue fulfilling their missions, which he said included nurturing national and social identity, and supporting the production of domestic content in national languages. "The good news is that the new technologies offer them the possibility to fulfil their missions even better than before - freed from time constraints, freed of geographical location, and able to reach people the world over through every new communications platform that emerges," he said. He urged all those present to share a new vision "in which free media, conveying the free opinions of majorities and minorities the world over, promote and guarantee democracy, development and human rights", and he said there was plenty of room for improvement in all regions of the world. Mr Pleitgen referred to recent controversy, not fully reported on Malaysian television, over the right to demonstrate - something the Malaysian government rejects. "It was good journalism that Al Jazeera reported that a peaceful protest by Malaysia's Indian minority was broken up in recent weeks," the EBU President said. "It was good journalism that I could read in a Malaysian newspaper about the suppression of a Human Rights Day walk by members of the Bar Council to mark International Human Rights Day. And an interview on human rights. Freedom of the press is not always comfortable, but it is a guarantee for a stable democratic society." Click here to read David Wood's blog on WEMF III |
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Delivering the keynote speech at the third World Electronic Media Forum ("WEMF III"), in Kuala Lumpur, Mr Pleitgen also said time was overdue for a new initiative to save the lives of journalists and to roll back a trend towards repression of freedom of expression.