Media freedom and safety of journalists are declining globally, with digital era bringing about even more threats to media staff, Irene Khan, UN Special Rapporteur on the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and expression, said on Friday.
“The decline of media freedom and the rise in threats to the safety of journalists is a worldwide trend, most sharply evident in backsliding democra-cies and recalcitrant totalitarian States,” Khan said.
Although the development of digital technology has opened many opportunities for journalists’ co-operation, it has also created direct threats for the lives of media reporters: killings with impunity, criminalization and harassment.
According to the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) statistics, 455 journalists had been killed on duty between 2016-2021 and in every eight out of ten cases the criminals were not brought to justice, Khan added.
“Critical independent journalism produced in the public interest is essential. Its absence or decline in many countries represents a major assault on media freedom,” she said.
The exert also underscored that currently there is a trend that the governments are gaining more control over public media as well as favoring private media that serve their political and economic interests.—AP
