Luanda — Angolan Permanent Mission to the United Nations, in Geneva, took part Tuesday in the seminar on legal and economic threats to the safety of journalists, organised by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCR), ANGOP has learnt.
According to the statement issued by the Permanent Mission, the seminar aimed at mapping the main risks and attacks currently faced in the exercise of this profession.
For the UNHCR, the world scenario has seen a worsening of threats to the diversity and independence of the media, with attempts to silence journalists and media workers and the increase in strategic lawsuits against public participation.
According to the organisation, the safety of journalists is considered an essential condition for the realisation of the universal and inalienable right to freedom of speech and the media, as stipulated in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
The seminar held in a hybrid format brought together experts from relevant United Nations States, agencies, funds and programmes.
Four distinct sessions marked the event, namely on the overview of current legislation and legal trends affecting the safety of journalists, approaches related to legal threats, including prosecutions against public participation and their impact on the safety of journalists.
The third session focused on discussion related to economic threats to journalists' safety and their impacts on media independence and pluralism, and the fourth session was on "what can be done to address legal issues and economic threats to journalists' safety"?
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The event gave special focus to the gender dimension of journalists' safety, as well as serving for an in-depth discussion on legal and economic threats to journalists' safety and their impact on human rights.
It also served to articulate ideas that should be adopted by the international community, states, businesses, civil society organisations and others to better protect journalists from legal and economic threats.
Throughout the plenary, experts called on States to review laws against defamation and libel that ensure States' compliance with their obligations under international human rights law, while States should reduce the socio-economic vulnerability of journalists and the financial viability of media outlets.
In accordance with resolution 50/9, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights will present a summary report of the experts' seminar to the Human Rights Council at its 55th session to be held in February-March 2024.
The seminar also served to reinforce the results achieved at the high-level conference held in Vienna (Austria) November 3 and 4 of 2022, whose main was "Safety of Journalists: Protecting the media to protect democracy", an event that brought together more than 400 participants, including Ministers of Foreign Affairs and Media, key stakeholders of International Organizations, civil society and academia.
