Call for better protection of journalists

The Institute of Maltese Journalists today joins fellow professional organisations and civil society groups worldwide in commemorating World Press Freedom Day.

Media and Good Governance is the theme of this year's World Press Freedom Day, which has been commemorated by UNESCO (the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation) since 1994.

In a message for the day, the director-general of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, explained that without freedom of expression and media freedom, "democracy cannot prevail and development remains unattainable.

"Independent, free and pluralistic media have a crucial role to play in the good governance of democratic societies, by ensuring transparency and accountability, promoting participation and the rule of law, and contributing to the fight against poverty," he said.

The worldwide toll of journalists and critical support staff killed covering a story is spiralling. Last year was the deadliest in at least a decade. So far this year, the International News Safety Institute has recorded 23 members of the news media killed at work in 11 countries, all but two of them murdered and no one brought to justice.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) estimated on World Press Freedom Day in 2003 that in 94 per cent of cases over the preceding 10 years, those who murdered journalists did so with impunity.

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) called for more concerted action by political and civil society groups.

"Too often governments display a heartless and cruel indifference to the suffering endured by the victims and their families," General Secretary Aidan White said. "There tends to be a few meaningless words of regret, a cursory inquiry and a shrug of indifference."

In this context, the Institute of Maltese Journalists, as the local affiliate of the IFJ, joins the federation in its global campaign against all restrictions on the right to report and for the restoration of pluralism, press freedom and open government as core values of democratic society.

Although no journalists have been killed in Malta, there have been various instances of physical harassment of journalists throughout the years as well as many more cases of verbal threats and abuse against journalists who thread the proverbial corn, the Institute of Maltese Journalists said.

Since 2001, a total of 10 cases of physical assault against journalists were reported to the Institute of Maltese Journalists. Many more have gone unreported.

The institute called again on the authorities to issue stiffer punishments against perpetrators of these crimes as well as to afford better protection to journalists in hotspots where such incidents occurred in the past, such as the law courts and during public meetings.