Michelle Loubon

Or­gan­i­sa­tion for Se­cu­ri­ty and Co-op­er­a­tion in Eu­rope (OSCE) Rep­re­sen­ta­tive on Free­dom of the Me­dia, Dun­ja Mi­ja­tovic, says so­ci­eties are not ma­ture enough to de­fend free­dom of ex­pres­sion and the rights of jour­nal­ists. Mi­ja­tovic, who is Bosn­ian–born but Aus­tri­an-based, made this com­ment dur­ing a pan­el dis­cus­sion ti­tled Free­dom of Ex­pres­sion and Trends World­wide at the IPI World Con­gress at the Hy­att Re­gency, Wright­son Road, Port-of-Spain, yes­ter­day.

"So­ci­eties are not ma­ture enough...when the jour­nal­ists is killed, when the jour­nal­ists is at­tacked. It is not ma­ture enough for free­dom of speech," she said. Mi­ja­tovic cit­ed Bosnia as an ex­am­ple which ex­pe­ri­enced "the blood­i­est war in the 20th cen­tu­ry." "It's not ma­ture enough for free­dom of speech, it is not ac­com­plished yet but there's hope."

She cit­ed psy­cho­log­i­cal in­tim­i­da­tion as an­oth­er tac­tic, for ex­am­ple jour­nal­ists' friends and fam­i­lies were at­tacked to stop and re­strict crit­i­cal voic­es. On the flip side, Mi­ja­tovic cit­ed Scan­di­na­vian coun­tries as shin­ing ex­am­ples of where free speech, re­spect for jour­nal­ists and jour­nal­ism are prac­tised.

She al­so paid ku­dos to in­ter­na­tion­al or­gan­i­sa­tions that are work­ing with civ­il so­ci­eties to bring about change. Mean­while, vet­er­an jour­nal­ist and for­mer UK Guardian ed­i­tor Pe­ter Pre­ston set the tone for the dis­cus­sion when he lament­ed the hor­ren­dous rise in vi­o­lence. Among the litany of woes were ab­duc­tions, sex­u­al vi­o­lence against fe­male jour­nal­ists, defama­tion and slan­der and the en­act­ment of pub­lic poli­cies aimed at muz­zling jour­nal­ists.

"The sit­u­a­tion had got so bad that jour­nal­ists were giv­en bul­let­proof vests," he said. As a re­sult, he called for mea­sures to pro­tect jour­nal­ists. "It calls for holis­tic pro­tec­tion," he said. OAS Spe­cial Rap­por­teur on Free­dom of Ex­pres­sion Catal­i­no Botero said crimes against jour­nal­ists must be treat­ed se­ri­ous­ly. She ques­tioned the man­ner in which pub­lic fig­ures stig­ma­tise jour­nal­ists and re­strict their right to ac­cess in­for­ma­tion.

Mean­while, Spe­cial Rap­por­teur on Free­dom of Ex­pres­sion and Ac­cess to In­for­ma­tion Pan­sy Tlaku­la said in Africa vi­o­lence is per­pet­u­at­ed against jour­nal­ists and the gov­ern­ments step in to reg­u­late news­rooms. UN Spe­cial Rap­por­teur on Free­dom of Opin­ion and Ex­pres­sion Frank La Rue said there was a need for a cru­cial al­liance be­tween the pub­lic and the me­dia. "It's a ser­vice to them," he said, while pro­mot­ing the need for in­ter­na­tion­al lit­er­a­cy.