Everyone has a role in press freedom, insists Narcos star Diego Luna
Mexican actor, producer and director Diego Luna took a break from the big screen on Thursday to highlight the dangers faced by journalists in his country and beyond, condemning murders of reporters everywhere as “a scandal”.
Speaking to journalists at UN Geneva ahead of a screening of his new documentary State Of Silence, Mr. Luna insisted that the issue of their safety was everyone’s responsibility.
“I think it's time for us to come out, us citizens, to come out and protect journalism around the world and protect these voices that are crucial for us to experience freedom, to experience democracy and to live in a healthy world,” he said. “There is no access to truth if there is no free journalism.”
According to UNESCO, the UN Scientific, Educational and Cultural agency that is mandated with keeping track of and promoting journalists’ safety worldwide, in 2022 and 2023, a journalist was killed every four days.
Efforts to encourage governments to do more to protect journalists are also spearheaded by the UN human rights office, OHCHR, which leads the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists. A staggering eight in 10 murders of journalists are not investigated around the world, said OHCHR Human Rights Officer Renaud de Villaine, who highlighted a “persistence” of the killing of journalists today.
“It happens in in conflict situations, like in the Middle East, but also in Ukraine,” he said. But it can also happen in countries not at war such as Mexico, where journalists investigating corruption, drugs, cartels and gangs like those who feature in the documentary “are specifically targeted”.
Since 2017, there have been 69 recorded murders and 32 documented cases of disappearances of journalists in Mexico, Mr. de Villaine noted, before insisting that the crisis belied deeper systemic issues which OHCHR was working hard with the authorities to resolve. “Journalists are not the only ones targeted…the problem is beyond journalism,” he maintained, noting the recent gruesome murder of city mayor Alejandro Arcos in Guerrero state.
Echoing those concerns, Santiago Maza, Director of State Of Silence, explained simply that “violence pays off” against journalists. The theme runs through the documentary which tells the stories of courageous investigative reporters from Mexico who have endured violence and threats on their lives which have forced them into hiding, in the pursuit of their work into subjects including illegal logging and the exploitation of vulnerable communities whose rivers have been diverted.
“The current situation won't change by itself, Mr. Maza insisted. “The fact that there's a new president doesn't mean that there's going to be an improvement in the situation, but it does provide an opportunity to address this properly and to change the hierarchy of what needs to be addressed by the Government.”
The dangers journalists face today include an increasing trend in many countries to criminalize their activities by using the apparatus of government.
“The judicial system in many countries is used and I would say also weaponized by State actors sometimes, but also by non-state actors to target journalists and media outlets,” said Mr. de Villaine. “It explains this criminalization of journalists, it explains why there is still a high rate of journalists being detained around the world - more than 300,” he said, citing the NGO Committee to Protect Journalists.
According to the Reporters Without Borders, Mexico ranks 121st in its World Press Freedom Index and 165th in terms of safety. A staggering 155 journalists have been killed there since 2000 because of organized crime “that is able to target and hit journalists…systemic corruption, plus also the failure of some institutions”, said Thibaut Bruttin, the NGO’s Director General.
“Journalists are not numbers, they are actual people,” he told reporters in Geneva. “It's not one more journalist being killed, it's another story that's gone, it's another life that’s disrupted…Also, journalists don't die, they're killed. Somebody is behind that.”
Explaining his reasons for wanting to get involved in the project as its executive producer, Mr. Luna said that over and above the “scandal” of the high number of journalists killed in Mexico, the wider negative impact on society needed to be addressed.
“It's what that violence generates,” he said. “It's the amount of young people that today are questioning if pursuing the dream of being a journalist or not, it’s the number of people who are scared of giving an interview today.”
He added: “When you silence a journalist, you're not just silencing one voice, you're silencing the voice of thousands of communities that needed that journalist to connect with the outside.”
ends
TRT: 04 min 03s
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / NATS
ASPECT RATIO: 16:9
DATELINE: 14 NOVEMBER 2024 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
Speakers:
SHOTLIST
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
New UN Human Rights report finds 10 years of increased suffering repression and fear
The UN Human Rights Office on Friday published a report on the human rights situation in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK) since 2014.
1
1
2
Edited News | UNICEF , UNHCR
The ongoing humanitarian response to the devastating Afghanistan earthquake disaster continued on Friday, although essential services have been cut for operational reasons following reinforced Taliban restrictions on women working with the UN, the global body said.
1
1
1
Press Conferences | WIPO , WMO , OHCHR , UNICEF , UNHCR , WHO
Michele Zaccheo, Chief, UNTV, Radio and Webcast Section, United Nations Information Service (UNIS) in Geneva, chaired the hybrid briefing, which was attended by spokespersons and representatives from the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, United Nations Children's Fund, United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, World Health Organization, World Intellectual Property Organization, World Meteorological Organization, and the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
Un nouveau rapport du Haut-Commissariat des Nations Unies aux droits de l'homme sur la République démocratique du Congo évoque le spectre de crimes de guerre et de crimes contre l'humanité dans le Nord et le Sud-Kivu.,
2
1
2
Press Conferences , Edited News | HRC
A high-level independent rights probe into the Sudan crisis on Tuesday condemned the many grave crimes committed against civilians by all parties to the war, citing disturbing evidence indicating that they had been “deliberately targeted, displaced and starved”.
1
1
1
Edited News | WHO
Ukraine: ‘Relentless’ attacks rattle health system as winter approaches: WHO
Ambulances attacked, chronically ill patients lacking care and no peace in sight: for millions of Ukrainians, the run-up to another winter of war is just the latest life-or-death challenge they face, the UN health agency (WHO) said on Tuesday.
1
1
1
Press Conferences | IFRC , OCHA , WHO , IOM , UNICEF
Alessandra Vellucci of the United Nations Information Service (UNIS) in Geneva, chaired the hybrid briefing, attended by spokespersons and representatives of the United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, the World Health Organization, UN Women, the International Organization for Migration, the United Nations Children’s Fund and the International Federation of the Red Cross.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk on Monday delivered his report on Sri Lanka to the 60th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR , UNOG
UN Human Rights Chief Volker Türk on Monday delivered his global update to the 60th session of the Human Rights Council in Geneva.
1
1
1
Edited News | OHCHR
A UN report on the Democratic Republic of Congo raises specter of war crimes and crimes against humanity in North and South Kivu, according to UN Human Rights Spokesperson Ravina Shamdasani.
1
1
1
Press Conferences | IFRC , OHCHR
Alessandra Vellucci, Director of the United Nations Information Service (UNIS) in Geneva, chaired the hybrid briefing, which was attended by spokespersons and representatives from the International Organization for Migration, the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, the World Meteorological Organization, the World Health Organization, and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights.
1
1
1
Edited News | WMO
As billions of people continue to breathe polluted air that causes more than 4.5 million premature deaths every year, UN climate experts on Friday highlighted how damaging microscopic smoke particles from wildfires play their part, travelling half-way across the world.