World Press Freedom Day 2020 - Risk in time of coronavirus
03/05/2020
Freedom of the press as an antidote against the risks of authoritarian
aspirations in time coronavirus.
Once again the recurrence of the World Press Freedom Day reminds us that no
significant progress at all has been made in order to promote and protect one
of the most important human rights. The opposite has occurred.
Journalists committed to perform their job in order to prove the truth have
been killed and many colleagues are in jail. Despite the fact that the in 2019
we had a quite lower number of journalist killed during the performance of their
work in comparison to the previous 16 years the situation remains very worrying.
What is particularly worrying is a clear correlation between suppression of
media freedom in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
The 2020 World Press Freedom Index, compiled by
Reporters Without Borders (RSF), shows that the coming decade will be decisive
for the future of journalism, with the Covid-19 pandemic highlighting and
amplifying the many crises that threaten the right to freely reported,
independent, diverse and reliable information.
We are entering a decisive decade for journalism, exacerbated by
coronavirus.
With the pretext of concentrating power in the hands of governments to
fight more effectively against the virus the press freedom is limited and even
suffocated..
What happened for example in Hungary docet.
Press freedom is a powerful antidote against the risks of authoritarian
aspirations in times of crisis.
Much worry causes the resentful intolerance of the US President Donald
Trump towards free press not sided with his way of thinking and doing.
The true democratic institutions
must act with resolution against attacks to the press freedom. Condemnations
doesn’t mean anything. His attitude toward the free press is increasingly away from the traditional, telling example of
the US standard in protecting press freedom. Unfortunately the President
Tramp’s intolerance towards free press risks also to influence governments in
other countries which are free press’ allergic.
But to condemn is also the attitude of many governments and European
institutions too, which after issuing press releases to condemn infringements
of press freedom don’t take concrete actions. Rules are not enough, actions are
needed to stop this cancer of society. To threaten is not enough, disregard of
freedom of press must be punished with loss of rights to vote in the
EU-institutions.
EJ strongly condemns all kind of limitation of freedom of the press and do
what it can to support and promote this fundamental right. Freedom of
expression and information is the most basic right. It is a precondition for
the preservation of all other political liberties. We are again calling to the
European Commission and the European Parliament to pay more attention to these
principals and to take strict action when necessary.
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