Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

World Press Freedom Day 3 May

Tash [alan lodge] | 03.05.2006 21:01 | Indymedia | Repression | Social Struggles

Throughout the world, 3 May serves as an occasion to inform the public of violations of the right to freedom of expression and as a reminder that many journalists brave death or jail to bring people their daily news.






World Press Freedom Day 3 May

"If I do wrong, write about me. If the queens do wrong, write about them. If my sons and daughters do wrong, write about them. If the judges and mayors do wrong, write about them. No one shall take action against the journalists for writing the truth. They shall go in and out of the palace freely."
-King Mindon (1853 - 1878)

King Mindon, the second last Burmese monarch, gave Burma a reputation as having one of the freest presses in Asia through his enactment of 17 Articles ensuring immunity of the press.

Since then, press freedom has fluctuated with the near complete muzzling of the press under the current regime. Today, all forms of expression in Burma are strictly controlled and censored by instruments of the military junta. Defenders of the press are subject to a series of arbitrary laws, ranking Burma as one of the worst enemies of press freedom in the world.

Throughout the world, 3 May serves as an occasion to inform the public of violations of the right to freedom of expression and as a reminder that many journalists brave death or jail to bring people their daily news.

World Press Freedom Day honours sacrifices around the world made for freedom of the press and reminds governments of their duty to respect and uphold the right to freedom of expression that is enshrined under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in 1993, the day is celebrated each year on May 3, the anniversary of the Declaration of Windhoek, a statement of free press principles put together by African newspaper journalists in 1991.

UNESCO marks World Press Freedom Day by conferring the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize on a deserving individual, organization or institution that has made an outstanding contribution to the defence and/or promotion of press freedom anywhere in the world, especially when this has been achieved in the face of danger. Created in 1997, the prize is awarded on the recommendation of an independent jury of 14 news professionals. Names are submitted by regional and international non-governmental organizations working for press freedom, and by UNESCO Member States.

The Prize is named in honour of Guillermo Cano Isaza, a Colombian journalist who was assassinated in front of the offices of his newspaper, El Espectador, in Bogotá, on December 17 1986. Cano's writings had offended Colombia's powerful drug barons.

The 2006 Prize has been awarded to Lebanese journalist May Chidiac, a popular television news presenter who survived an assassination attempt in Beirut on 25 September 2005. She lost her left hand and leg when a bomb strapped to her car detonated minutes after she got in. She has come to be seen as a symbol of freedom of expression in Lebanon, where the assassinations of two colleagues - Lebanese columnist Samir Kassir and newspaper publisher Gebran Tueni - in 2005 shocked the nation.

*****

Here in the UK, many of us, have felt the oppression of police / state, not wanting their activities recorded by a free press.

Union calls for case against photographer to be dropped [2 May 2006].

The NUJ will today call on magistrates in Nottingham to throw out the police case against freelance photographer Alan Lodge as "an affront to the principles of a free press". Alan was arrested and charged with obstructing the police after taking pictures of armed officers in central Nottingham. He is due to appear at an interim hearing this morning.

Alan Lodge was arrested photographing police action in a public area of Nottingham city centre. He was arrested after asserting his rights under guidelines agreed between local police and the NUJ to improve police media relations. And whilst he was released several hours later his photographic equipment was impounded preventing him from working.

Alan will be joined at the court today by campaigners from the union's Nottingham Branch as well as NUJ President Chris Morley.

NUJ General Secretary Jeremy Dear said: "This case has enormous repercussions and is vital for the exercise of press freedom. Alan had a perfect right to photograph in a public place a matter of clear public interest. If the court takes away that right then all of us will suffer as it will have a chilling effect on the exercise of press freedom. The court should throw these ludicrous charges out and make a clear statement about the rights of press photographers.

"Police guidelines on how to handle the media are no good on paper if officers break them out on the streets. This shows the vital need for senior officers to educate street level officers about the rights and responsibilities of media."

Nottingham NUJ Branch Secretary Kevin Stanley said: "This incident makes a mockery of the guidelines that the chief constable signed up to at the beginning of the year".

NUJ website at  http://www.nuj.org.uk

Nottingham photographer arrested by armed officers
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/nottinghamshire/2006/03/336778.html

Indymedia photographer arrested by armed officers [feature]
 http://www.indymedia.org.uk/en/regions/nottinghamshire/2006/03/337223.html

*****

World Press Freedom Day
 http://www.worldpressfreedomday.org

Fanning the Flame of Tolerance: The Role of the Media
 http://www.un.org/events/pressday/2005

UN World Press Freedom Day
 http://www.un.org/depts/dhl/press

UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s message on World Press Freedom Day, observed 3 May
 http://www.un.org/News/Press/docs/2006/sgsm10436.doc.htm

Wikipedia on World Press Freedom Day
 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Press_Freedom_Day


____________________________________________
ALAN LODGE
Photographer - Media: One Eye on the Road. Nottingham. UK
Email:  tash@gn.apc.org
Web:  http://tash.gn.apc.org
WAP phone  http://wappy.to/tash
My Blog  http://tash_lodge.blogspot.com
BroadBand  http://tash.dns2go.com
Member of the National Union of Journalists [No: 014345]
____________________________________________
"It is not enough to curse the darkness.
It is also necessary to light a lamp!!"
____________________________________________
OS Grid Ref: SK 575414 - Lat/Lon: 52:58:03N, 1:08:38W

Tash [alan lodge]
- e-mail: tash@indymedia.org
- Homepage: http://tash.gn.apc.org

Comments

Hide the following comment

Amnesty International on Press Freedom Day

04.05.2006 21:13

Press Freedom: Journalists in need of protection
 http://web.amnesty.org/pages/315-030506-feature-eng

Donnacha
mail e-mail: donnacha.delong@tiscali.co.uk


Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech