The Institute of Maltese Journalists (IGM) marked World Press Freedom Day today by reiterating its call  on the government to implement the Freedom of Information Act (FOI) “as soon as possible”.

Meanwhile, the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) is marking this year's World Press Freedom Day by focusing on the legacy of the terrorist attacks on 11 September, 2001, in New York and Washington a decade ago.

“The last ten years have seen an alarming erosion of press freedom as governments adopted a hard line in the fight against terror," insisted IFJ President Jim Boumelha.

“There is no doubt that journalists have been among the prominent victims of a widespread assault on the democratic rights of all citizens and this has to change,” he added.

The IFJ insisted that the laws introduced in the wake of the attacks of 11 September, 2001, in America, such as restrictions of movement and the right to investigate public authorities and to report and to publish freely “have reduced the rights of journalists”. The Federation called for “a fresh debate on the new information landscape and how governments are responding to the challenge of groups, such Wikileaks, in exposing government secrets and the impact this has on journalism”.

The IFJ warned there was a need “to review the security legislation and its impact on the work of journalists and has called on its affiliates to promote the campaign in their annual activities and events this year”.

The IFJ plans to launch a major campaign – “Journalism in the Shadow of Terror” – to consider the impact of those terrible events and to call for a reversal of the tide of legal and official intimidation of journalism and attacks on civil liberties that have followed the events of 2001. 

Unesco is celebrating the day with the theme “21st Century Media: New Frontiers, New Barriers”.

Events are being held in more than 100 countries to celebrate the Day, which also marks the 20th anniversary of the Windhoek Declaration for the promotion of free and pluralistic media.

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