UNESCO promotes press freedom while condemning reporters’ murders

PARIS –UNESCO is fighting for press freedom through a social media campaign meant to promote unintimidated news reporting worldwide even as UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay has issued eight statements in 2019 condemning the murders of journalists.

The most recent, issued Feb. 21, denounced the killing of broadcast reporter Jesus Eugenio Ramos in Tabasco in southern Mexico earlier this month.

“I trust that the investigation underway will allow for the prosecution of those responsible for this crime,” Azoulay said in a statement. “Impunity for attacks on media workers constitutes a tacit endorsement of crimes that undermine both freedom of information and the fundamental human right to freedom of expression.”

UNESCO’s campaign — called #TruthNeverDies – began last year to encourage member countries to create safe working environments for journalists. More than 1,000 journalists have been killed in the last 12 years, the organization found.

“Killing journalists is not going to kill the truth,” said Mehdi Benchelah, senior project officer from the UNESCO Division of Freedom of Expression and Media. “It’s going to make it louder.”

A recent report said reporters can only fight disinformation, misinformation and “mal-information,” or information based in reality but used to harm on an individual or group, if they are not censored, intimidated or otherwise inhibited from doing their jobs.

UNESCO’s latest freedom of expression goal is to reach out to officials and citizens to educate countries within the United Nations on ways to work with the press.

President Donald Trump has adopted the phrase “Fake News” for articles by reputable news outlets with which he disagrees, and he regularly calls journalists “the enemy of the people.” Meanwhile, his supporters are earning headlines for harassing the press. A week ago, a BBC reporter was cursed at and shoved during a Trump rally in El Paso, Texas.

Other politicians from western countries are also disparaging the press. Marine Le Pen, France’s former right-wing presidential candidate, told reporters in a recent press conference in the Paris suburbs that she can criticize the press like she does any institution.

Meanwhile, UNESCO is using social media hashtags and taking out advertisements on billboards in an effort to create a healthy environment for the press. It also is working with judges in Mexico to improve impunity rates and working with police in Tunisia to help them understand the role of the press.

One of the campaign posters reads, “Each year, one journalist gets a Pulitzer and one hundred get shot.”

“We’re firing with everything we have,” Benchelah said about UNESCO’s efforts.

However, UN member countries’ participation in the programs is optional.

The latest high-profile journalist killed was Jamal Khashoggi from The Washington Post, who was last seen entering a Saudi Arabian consulate in Turkey on Oct. 2, 2018. The Saudi government at first denied any knowledge of the murder, but eventually said it had been ordered by a rogue intelligence officer. However, many critics have said it is likely Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman issued the order. Khashoggi’s murder has been condemned by several countries and journalism groups, including UNESCO, but some American senators have criticized Trump for being too soft on an American trading partner.

Benchelah said UNESCO’s work has helped raise awareness of the issue of press freedom.

Every year since 1997, UNESCO has honored journalists or organizations for making an “outstanding contribution” to press freedom, especially in the face of danger. A couple of the reporters receiving the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize were released from prison after being recognized.

The dangers are not just faced by foreign correspondents, but by local journalists especially. News outlets often rely on “fixers” who speak the language and can put foreign correspondents in contact with local officials.

“I think in the industry, there’s not even awareness for [those] journalists,” said Benchelah, who worked as a foreign correspondent before joining UNESCO.

These local journalists sometimes pay with their lives to get information sought by foreign news outlets. Benchelah said about 93 percent of journalists killed are local, and there’s a new uptick in deaths in non-war zones like Mexico and the Philippines.

Reporters without Borders, which is based in France and ranks countries’ freedom of press, classifies those two countries as “difficult situation” areas – one step better than the worst countries such as Syria, Iran and China.