#ProtectJournalists Campaign Aims to Appoint a Special Representative to the UN Josh Russell - Courthouse News Service
go to original September 17, 2016

Advocates for journalists' safety demanded political weight within the United Nations at a summit Friday during the 71st Session of UN General Assembly.

Reporters Without Borders co-hosted the event with the Committee to Protect Journalists at the New York City press room of the United Nations Correspondents Association.

Their campaign, #ProtectJournalists, aims to appoint a special representative to the United Nations secretary-general for the safety of journalists. The initiative boasts the endorsements of more than 100 nongovernmental and media organizations.

During his brief opening remarks, Joel Simon, executive director for the Committee to Protect Journalists, emphasized that journalists' freedom of expression, though "central to humanity," is "under siege."

Christophe Deloire, the secretary general of Reporters Without Borders, said more than 800 journalists have been killed in the last 10 years and pushed for action to "no longer let journalists get killed due to lack of political will."

The diverse panel of six journalists congratulated each others' courageousness for covering news in some of the deadliest regions in the world.

...Mexican investigative journalist Maria Idalia Gomez made an effort to describe the complicated dynamics in Mexico between the overlapping worlds of the drug cartels and the weakened, if not also corrupt government powers. Gomez explained that fear and compromise causes some journalists in Mexico to ignore news, saying self-censorship is a form of self-protection kidnapping. Gomez elaborated that the deep entrenchment of political corruption goes unchecked in Mexico because there is a lack of scrutiny from journalists. She explained that this pattern pervasive corruption, fear and self-censorship extends throughout much of Latin America.

Read the rest at Courthouse News Service

Image: Reporters Without Borders

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