COMMENTARY ON WORD PRESS FREEDOM DAY: 2015 THEME: LET JOURNALISM THRIVE! TOWARDS BETTER REPORTING, GENDER EQUALITY & MEDIA SAFETY IN DIGITAL AGE
By-Gbemiga Bamidele
World Press freedom Day is a day observed all over the world on May 3 to create awareness of the importance of freedom of the press. Freedom of expression constituted under the Universal Declaration of Human Rights proclaimed and designated by the UN General Assembly in 1993, the World Press day is celebrated every year on 3rd of May.
The objective of the World Press Freedom Day is to remind our governmental and nongovernmental organizations and civil society of the vital role of the liberty of freedom of press in strengthening democracies and promoting development around the world.
All over the world the world press freedom day serves as an occasion to inform all the communities of violations of the right to freedom of expression and freedom of opinion. The World Press Day is a reminder of daring death and sacrifices or jail of many journalists to bring daily news for the general public.
It also preaches to us and our governments to respect their commitments to press freedom. The primary goal of the World Press Day is to increase awareness of the importance of freedom the press amongst all the communities of the world.
The theme for this year World press freedom Day is “Let Journalism Thrive! Towards Better Reporting, Gender Equality and Media Safety in the Digital Age. World Press freedom Day 2015 examines three inter-relate issues (a) free and independent Journalism, and quality reporting, in the context of digital age. This subject covers how media concentration impacts on media’s role self-regulation issues, the challenge to investigative journalism, hate speech and Media and Information Literacy. (b) the issues of women in the media and (c) The safety of Journalists including the hotspots, and the protection of journalists’ sources from digital disclosure.
The advent of the information society has given rise to ethical discussions on moral rights and obligations, legislation, use and dissemination of information. Information ethics is just as essential to build knowledge societies. The ethical perspective on information use implies that reliable quality information should be open and accessible to everybody.
Journalism is a profession based on trust. People need to know that the news they are viewing/or listening to, or reading is fair, accurate and honest. Journalists have to be proud and protective of their ethical and editorial standards, built on the secured foundations of integrity and experience.
News media accountability and how it might be strengthened and improved are highly significant just like news quality and news availability.
But the growing influence of commercialization and concentration of media enterprise ownership often in a way that lacks transparency, also impacts upon the independence and quality of journalism.
When governments and politicians continue to have too much influence over who owns, operates and regulates the media and that many media markets continue to exist with monopolistic practices, conception, or non-transparent methods. Consequently, the public is given only the same limited number of ideas, views, and facts that are packaged and recycled. In this context, self-regulation can provide a defence for the integrity of journalism, but it is uneven.
The issue of better news reporting is also being challenged by complexities in the reporting on hate and hate speech. Compounding this are user-generated comments, whereby hatred is being expressed directly on the media platforms, often bypassing any editorial process. Deleting this kind of speech may drive those who espouse it into a situation in which information, ideas, or beliefs are amplified or reinforced by repetition while different or competing views are censored or disallowed. This is a situation where one purveyor of information will make a claim, which many like-minded people then repeat, overhear, and repeat again (often in an exaggerated or otherwise distorted form) until most people assume that some extreme variation of the story is true.
Allowing such content to remain on-line in the interest of playing the role of a public sphere may alienate other parts, and it may also violate laws on hate. These challenges point to the need for media policies to maintain a quality and professional role in the face of hate.
All the points above impact significantly on the potential of the role of media in regard to sustainable development.
To contribute to peaceful, accountable and inclusive societies, there is need to address online freedom of expression, media pluralism, self regulation, the business model for investigation journalism, online hate speech, and media and Information Literacy.
Gender equality implies a society in which women and men enjoy the same opportunities, outcomes, rights and obligations in all sphere of life. Two of Beijing Declaration’s explicit goals, under objective J, are to “increase the participation and access of women to expression and decision making in and through the media and new technologies of communication” and “promote a balanced and non-stereotyped portrayal of women in the media”.
The 2011 Global Report on the Status of women in the News media, a 59-nation study of women’s employment in more than 500 newsrooms, found that women only represent a third of the entire work-force. In addition, the glass ceiling is evident by positions in top level management and government where men take up to three quarters (72.7% and 74.1% respectively) of the available jobs. This lack of professional mobility differs from region to region, but in general, women remain underrepresented in key management positions in the media.
In addition, safety of women journalists also continues to be an issue: the 2014 Violence and Harassment against women in the News Media, A Global picture survey stated that almost two-thirds (or 64.8%) of the self selected respondents to research had been intimidated, threatened or abuse whereas one out of five (or 21.6%) had been physically associated in relation to their work. Sexual harassment was encumbered by approximately half (or 47.9%) of the respondents, with sexual assaults happening in 14.3% of all incidents. Furthermore, supervisors and managers constitute a substantial amount of perpetrators at the workplace, encumbering the victim’s capability to report it.
UN women, the United Nations entity promoting gender equality and the empowerment of women, recognizes the powerful potential of media “to change or reinforce social behaviours and mobilize citizens.” In this regard, it advocates gender-sensitive reporting through workshops and toolkits, including the creation and dissemination of specific manuals.
Similarly, UNESCO, as one of its global priorities aims to overcome the gender divide through its Priority Gender Equality Action Plan-2014-2021. Together with other stake holders, UNESCO reached a milestone in the promotion of gender-inclusive media on the Global Media forum in Bangkok, Thailand in December 2013 with the creation of the Global Alliance on Media and Gender (GAMAG). This network is an attempt to accelerate change in favour of gender equality in and through the media.
The issue of safety of Journalists and their sources has attracted global attention. The work of journalists often put them at specific risk of intimidation, harassment and violence.
Some suffer kidnapping, torture, abduction, and arbitrary detention. These risks become particularly visible when a journalist is killed in a highly publicized manner such as the beheading of journalists James Foley and Steven sotloff by ISIS.
When the danger is posed by non-state actors such as terrorist groups and criminal organizations, ensuring the safety of journalists becomes even harder. There are distinct challenges for journalists and editors reporting from hostile and dangerous environments.
Safety also has a digital dimension and not only for mainstream journalists. According to a report on safety of journalists from the office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OH CHR) in July 2013. As the number of online journalists has increased, so have attacks against them, such as illegal hacking of their accounts, monitoring of their online activities, arbitrary arrest and detention, and the blocking of websites that contain information critical of authorities.
The threats facing journalists in the digital age include: location tracking; software and hardware exploits without the knowledge of the target; phishing attacks; fake domain attacks; man-in-the-middle (MitM) attacks, denial of service (DOS) attacks; website defacement; compromised user accounts; intimidation and harassment; disinformation and similar campaigns; as well as confiscation of journalistic work product.
On December 18, 2013 at its 70th Plenary meeting, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution A/RES/68/167 on the right to privacy in the digital age which called for reviews to ensure that surveillance operations in terms of independent oversight and transparency. The resolution calls upon all states to (a) respect and protect the right to privacy, including in the context of digital communication (b) to take measures to put an end to violations of those rights and to create the conditions to prevent such violations, including by ensuring that relevant national legislation complies with their obligations under international human rights law (c) to review their procedures, practice and legislation regarding the surveillance of communications, their interception and the collection of personal data, including mass surveillance to upholding the right to privacy by ensuring the full and effective implementation of all other obligations under international human rights law and (d) to establish or maintain existing independent, effective domestic oversight Independent effective domestic oversight mechanisms capable of ensuring transparency, as appropriate, and accountability for state surveillance of communications, their interception and the collection of personal data.
In Nigeria, efforts are being made towards ensuring safety of journalists in “hotsports”, while performing journalistic works and at all times.
The umbrella body for all journalists in Nigeria, the Nigeria Union of Journalists (NUJ) believes that protecting journalists is not treating journalists as a special case but because journalists are singled out and targeted as a result of their noble and legitimate work and that the terrain in which they work is very difficult and prone with so many hazards. Protection and safety of journalists is a humanitarian concern as well as a professional concern. No story is worth a life and once a life is lost, there will be no other story because there will be no one to tell it.
Gbemiga Bamidele, Secretary, National Monitoring Network on Safety of Journalists can be reached on 08033237973 and/or e-mail: liftmeahead@yahoo.com
