Germany’s parliament has supported the idea of creating a UN Special Representative for the Safety of Journalists, the first parliament in the world to do so.
The Special Representative would be responsible for ensuring international legal obligations on the safety of journalists and the freedom the press are followed, reporting any violations to the UN Secretary-General.
“It is an unbearable state of affairs that year after year dozens of journalists around the world get killed simply for doing their job”,
said Christian Mihr
, executive director of Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Germany.
“This Bundestag motion is an important signal to finally provide the United Nations with effective tools to enforce the many UN resolutions on the safety of journalists. Now the German government should follow suit and give the initiative for a UN Special Representative on the issue a diplomatic boost by supporting it publicly,” Mihr said.
According to the Bundestag resolution, German authorities must take care to protect freedom of communication at all levels, civil, European and international.
“Since 2007, at least 711 journalists have been killed worldwide in direct connection with their work. Despite various UN bodies’ resolutions, no significant improvement has been achieved. In many of the countries affected by the issue, the fight against such violent crime against journalists is stagnating,” the RSF said in a statement.
The
RSF has condemned
what it believes to be a renewed crackdown on freedom of the press in Azerbaijan. The organization called up on the Azerbaijani government to release 15 bloggers, media workers and independent journalists currently held in detention.
The new RSF statement lists a number of victims of this crackdown, including the head of the Center for Journalistic Investigations (JAM) and editor-in-chief of its website, who was sentenced to 7 years; the freelance journalist Nijat Amiraslanov, who was recently released after 30 days under administrative arrest; the investigative journalist Afghan Mukhtarli, who was kidnapped in Tbilisi and arrested in Baku; and Aziz Orujov, the director of online TV “Kanal 13”, among others.
RSF has ranked Azerbaijan 162nd out of 180 countries in its last
World Press Freedom Index 2017
.
