Protect journalists, UN tell govts

TANAKA FETINANDI RECENTLY IN GENEVA, SWITZERLAND

The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) is urging governments and States to implement effective measures for the protection of journalists.

Speaking during a media briefing with female journalists who participated at a UN study tour in Geneva, Switzerland, OHCHR Human Rights Officer Renaud Gaudin de Villaine emphasized that states must take responsibility and ensure proper legislation safeguarding journalists.

“What is important is really to have a conducive legislative and legal framework and also to have national mechanisms for the protection of journalists so that states feel responsible for their protection,” he said.

“When a journalist is at risk, be it because of a state actor or a non-state actor, that journalist can benefit from a specific protection from the State,” he added.

He said this is something the OHCHR has tried in a number of countries by capacity building programmes with governments.”

He emphasized the importance of enacting laws that promote journalistic freedom and repealing those that restrict it.

Focusing on the challenges for women journalists, he said that online harassment often leads to real-world violence.

“When it comes to specific situations of women journalists, online is a major concern because you have the harassment online but you also have the effect of harassment offline.”

“We see that violence is also trending offline based on what is online so this is another trend that we follow more specifically and the use of new technologies against journalists, technologies to spy on the work of journalists and also affect their right to privacy.