The world is facing a “terrible erosion of free expression,” Aidan White, general secretary of the International Federation of Journalists, told the 149 members of The Newspaper Guild gathered in Toronto on Saturday.
White said violence targeted at journalists has increased dramatically in the last several years. He said that 155 journalists and media staff people were killed in 2006 in warfare and by militias and gangsters around the world. Among those attending the guild meeting were Local 51 President Jennie Tunkieicz,1st Vice President Jerry Ziegler, and 2nd Vice President Amy Rinard.
A native of Ireland, White has been a consultant to several United Nations agencies, the Council of Europe and the European Commission on the mass media and human rights. He has worked as a reporter for The Guardian and other newspapers in Great Britain.
He railed against the impunity of governments that at the least allow killers to get away with the murder of journalists and at the worst engaged in actual complicity in those killings. He noted that there are 14 unsolved murders of journalists in Russia alone.
White said that the International Federation of Journalists has been pushing both the U.N. and the U.S. government to take measures to safeguard journalists.
He noted that BBC reporter Alan Johnston, who was released after kidnappers in Gaza held him for 114 days, was especially grateful to the pressure brought by the federation on governments and private groups to work for his release. Johnston is now working with the federation to try to free other journalist around the world who are being held by kidnappers or governments.
Some governments, Johnston said, has found the anti-terrorism campaign to be a “useful smokescreen” to attack and hold journalists.
And yet it is just those conditions that make it so important for the preservation of a free press, White said.
“Never before has it been so important for journalists ot be informed, ethical and responsible,” he said.
Adding to the pressure on journalists is the turmoil in newspaper ownership, especially in the United States, he said, where sensationalism is pushing aside good solid journalism.
And there is more to come, he said, as ever-changing technology puts more pressure on journalists. “The greatest tests we face are still ahead,” he said.
