[hr-media] UN expert on freedom of expression blasts attacks on media

UN EXPERT ON FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION BLASTS ATTACKS ON MEDIA
New York, Dec 11 2002  2:00PM

Media rights experts, including the United Nations authority on the freedom 
of opinion and expression, have condemned continuing attacks on journalists 
and the possible challenge to editorial independence posed by the 
concentration of media ownership.

UN Special Rapporteur Ambeyi Ligabo, Freimut Duve, the Representative of 
the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe on the freedom of 
the media, and Eduardo Bertoni, the Special Rapporteur of the Organization 
of American States on the freedom of expression, issued a joint statement 
yesterday condemning attacks on journalists and the impunity enjoyed by the 
perpetrators of such abuses.

The experts also recognized the interdependence of a free media and an 
independent judiciary, and that concentration in ownership of the media and 
the means of communication might challenge editorial independence. In 
addition, their statement condemned criminal defamation as an unjustifiable 
restriction to freedom of expression.

The statement came at the conclusion of their meeting in London from 9 to 
10 December to discuss challenges to freedom of speech and the media. The 
gathering was the fourth since 1999 organized by Article 19, a free-speech 
advocacy group.