ARTICLE 19 and a cross-regional group of Member States, part of the Geneva Group of Friends on the Safety of Journalists, have the honour of inviting you to a side event at the 50th Session of the UN Human Rights Council on ‘New and Emerging Threats to the Safety of Journalists’.
Time: 13:30-15:00 CEST, 24 June 2022. You can check your local time here.
A decade ago, in 2012, the UN Human Rights Council (HRC) adopted a landmark resolution on the safety of journalists by consensus, setting out an ambitious international framework to prevent, protect and remedy all attacks against journalists. Since then, the UN HRC has adopted follow-up resolutions on a biennial basis, creating an elaborate and ever-growing set of international standards. The set of resolutions has been adopted by consensus and co-sponsored by a large, cross-regional group of countries, indicating widespread commitment to these international standards. The next iteration of the resolution will be tabled at the 51st Session of the UN HRC in September 2022.
While the UN HRC has now created an elaborate set of international standards, the threats faced by journalists are only growing more complex. Journalists are faced with increasingly insidious forms of legal harassment, such as strategic lawsuits against public participation (SLAPPs), from governments or wealthy private actors attempting to bankrupt and silence them. While digital technology has enabled groundbreaking investigative reporting and new models of cross-border collaboration, it has also given rise to unprecedented challenges and changes for journalists and media outlets, aggravating existing threats and creating new ones.
The report by the UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression aims to reinforce media freedom and the safety of journalists in the digital age, and highlights new frontiers for the safety of journalists and provides recommendations to protect them as we look to the future.
Join ARTICLE 19 and members of the Geneva Group of Friends on the Safety of Journalists as we approach the tenth anniversary of the first UN HRC resolution on the safety of journalists to discuss:
- What are emerging threats faced by journalists worldwide? How are these threats growing more complex?
- What opportunities and challenges has the digital age posed to the safety of journalists across the globe?
- What are some of the most crucial standards set in safety of journalists resolutions over the past ten years and what are the gaps in the existing international standards that need to be addressed in future iterations of the resolution, including the upcoming resolution at the 51st Session of the UN HRC?
- How can we ensure better implementation of the safety of journalists resolutions and other commitments at the international level, such as the UN Plan of the Safety of Journalists?
Opening Statement:
- Michelle Bachelet, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights
Panel:
- Irene Khan, UN Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression
- Carole Cadwalladr, Journalist at the Guardian Media Group, UK
- Daniel Lizárraga, Investigative Journalist and Editor at El Faro, Mexico
- Krittika Cloitre, Journalist, Thailand
- Dr Sejal Parmar, Senior Lecturer, School of Law and Politics, Cardiff University