Remarks at the International Federation of Journalists, 28th World Congress
4th June 2013
Tá an-áthas orm a bheith in bhur dteannta le haghaidh na comhdhála tábhachtaí seo. Ba mhaith liom buíochas a ghlacadh le Seamus Dooley as an gcuireadh fial. Is eol dom gurb é seo an chéad uair a bhfuil an Chomhdháil Dhomhanda seo ag cruinniú i mBaile Átha Cliath agus ba mhaith liom fáilte a chur roimh na rannpháirtithe go hÉirinn. Táim ar an eolas chomh maith gurb é seo an chéad Chomhdháil Dhomhanda ag an Uasal Beth Costa, Rúnaí Ginearálta bhur gCónaidhme agus ag Michelle Stanistreet, Rúnaí Ginearálta nua Cheardchumann Náisiúnta na nIriseoirí. Guím gach rath ar an mbeirt Rúnaithe Ginearálta ina róil nua.
[I am delighted to join you all here today for this important Congress. I would like to thank Seamus Dooley for his kind invitation. I am aware that this is the first time the World Congress is meeting in Dublin and I would like to welcome all the participants to Ireland. I am also aware that this is the first World Congress for Ms. Beth Costa, the General Secretary of your Federation in her new role, and for Michelle Stanistreet, the new General Secretary of the National Union of Journalists. I wish both General Secretaries every success in their new roles.]
The Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki Moon stated recently in his message to mark World Peace Day that “When it is safe to speak, the whole world benefits”. Freedom of speech, or expression – by which we understand the individual or collective right to ‘seeking and receiving information of any kind and the dissemination of information and opinions through any means’ –is a central tenet of Article 19 of the United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is a right that is correctly regarded as being central to the proper functioning of a civil and a democratic society, and with it come responsibilities for the vindication of the right and respect for its exercise.
This gathering is an acknowledgement of the fundamental role played by freedom of expression and freedom of the media in the life of every free society. This Congress is a time for reminding ourselves of the obligation we share to ensure and support press freedom around the world; to respect and enable the release of its transformative power to change and reform society and to acknowledge the contribution it makes to the crafting of democratic structures on which truly fair and inclusive societies can be built.
Today, in many parts of the world journalists have their lives and livelihoods threatened on a regular basis. UNESCO has estimated that more than six hundred journalists have been killed in the past decade, in situations ranging from civil wars to the actions of organised violent criminals; last year we saw an unparalleled level of violence against journalists with a record number losing their lives; and we are also aware of a worrying increase in acts of verbal, legal and physical aggression against journalists around the world.
When attacks on the media take place they are not solely attacks on individual journalists as they attempt to inform the public without fear for their personal safety or their economic wellbeing. They are also attacks on the very foundations of human rights, undermining the public good and the creation of democratic societies underpinned by a freely operating press allowed to work under the principles which lead to diversity and pluralism.
We know that access to information is fundamental in the empowering of citizens, allowing them not only control of their lives, but the authority to participate, to shape their societies and protect themselves from abuse of their rights. We also know that the public has to be afforded the capacity to form judgments from an array of political viewpoints offered through an increasingly diverse range of media tools. To be the arrow not the target, as the late Raymond Williams put it in his last address to media workers and film workers, we know that it is critical that journalists can and must be allowed to speak the truth without fear or sanction; and that citizens must be allowed to evaluate and weigh an array of accurate and impartially provided evidence, and come to independent conclusions of their own.
Amnesty International’s recently published report highlighting the violent repression of journalists – both professional and civilian – in Syria, described as the most dangerous country in the world for journalists to live and work in, is salutary reading, reminding us of the many ways in which those attempting to inform fellow citizens, and the world at large, of political corruption and serious abuse of human rights are so violently muzzled and prevented from carrying out their critical work.
It also reminds us of the extraordinary courage and heroism of the many journalists around the world who continually place themselves at enormous risk in order to access and disseminate vital information; and of how critical it is that the international community understand their obligation to protect the human rights of those living under oppressive regimes; including the exercise of universal jurisdiction.
The recent reiteration of the principles of World Press Freedom Day on 3 May by the member countries of UNESCO was an important act of solidarity but if it is to be of real value it must be a commitment to turn human rights aspirations in this area from aspirations into guarantees. We need to constantly remind ourselves of the commitments we have all made to press freedom and the challenges posed by new contingencies and new technology, but these cannot be left at the level of rhetorical gestures.
When we speak of the dramatic challenges that face those who report in difficult parts of the world, it is important not to forget that challenges to media pluralism and freedom arise in apparently more stable parts of the world also. The threat to impartial and free journalism can flow from within the media sector as much as without – it can flow from the concentration of power of owners, cross-ownership, advertisers’ pressure or even from the reticence of journalists to challenge received wisdom. All of these are challenges that must be met, and I welcome the emphasis placed on all of these matters by the International Federation of Journalists.
The concentration of ownership, the convergence of technologies, the fragmentation of audiences, the commodification of experience, are all elements of the changed circumstances in which journalism is, and will, be practised.
The media landscape has changed considerably in recent decades. Even in those parts of the world where citizens are no longer misinformed by an ideological state media control, the risk of censorship can still present itself in the form of monopolies and oligarchy. A mass media characterised by the rise of large trans-national media players brings new challenges for journalists. Media becomes less diverse, and less willing to challenge received wisdom or the interests of those in power, be that through direct editorial challenge or through less obvious measures.
Journalists attempting to investigate and provide information on political and corporate corruption can often be hindered and intimidated by those with vested interests, including by use of violent means; which, if acceded to, would lead to a dangerous misrepresentation or even falsification of information which would not be in the interests of individual citizens and would obviously be detrimental to society at large. The principle of diversity and pluralism which lies at the heart of the media must be protected if we are to promote a free flow of ideas and information and strengthen the exercise of freedom of expression around the world.
Pluralism, real diversity and choice are critical and should never be reduced to a false choice between partisan media arrayed on ideological grounds, and identikit news organisations chasing the same narrow commercial ground. New media – bloggers, citizen journalists, student journalists – can and do play a part in providing a plurality of media, but real plurality is cross cutting, it occurs everywhere. And it occurs at a granular level, within countries as much as within regions, reflecting religious and ethnic diversity, and the views and needs of rich and poor alike. Governments and civil society need to keep this issue at the forefront of media policy – democracy, freedom, even economic growth depend on it.
Future challenges are no less challenging. Mass media appear to be converging on a set of online technologies to deliver content. This has some very profound opportunities for media and for journalism, not least because it opens up a potentially global audience and theoretically renders national borders redundant – stories can flow around the world, regardless of where they are written – the possibilities for citizen journalism, for civic groups and for the dispossessed to take control of their own narratives are immense.
Mar sin féin, níor cheart neamhaird a thabhairt ar iarmhairtí na héagsúlachta céanna sin, ar fhéidearthachtaí na hiolrachta glórtha, ná ar thonn tuile ábhar gearrshaolach an duine. Tá cumas fíorchumhachtach ag na huirlisí lena ndéanann daoine iarracht an sruth sin a chur in ord agus a mhiondealú. Cheana féin, feicimid an cumhacht eagarthóireachta á thabhairt ar láimh d’innill chuardaigh – ní céim an-mhór é a cheapadh go mbeidh na teicneolaíochtaí oiriúnaitheacha agus an-úsáideacha sin ag glacadh róil, ag bheidh ag méadú de réir a chéile, sa chaoi ina mbeidh teacht ag daoine ar na meáin amach anseo. Ar an mbealach céanna, tá sé éasca a fheiceáil an chaoi a bhféadfadh an domhandú inneachair sin ligean d’ábhar móréilimh tráchtála teacht i seilbh eisiach soláthróirí móra inneachair – cuideachtaí na meán, atá comhtháite go hingearach, a d’fhéadfadh teacht i gceannas ar an talamh láir tráchtála, agus leis sin teacht ar na hardáin a mbaineann daoine leas astu chun breathnú ar inneachar.
[However the consequences of this very diversity, these possibilities for plurality of voices, this mass tidal wave of human ephemera, must not be ignored. The tools by which people seek to order and parse this flow are potentially hugely powerful. Already we can see the editorial power being granted to search engines – it is not a huge leap to suggest that in the future, these adaptive and hugely useful technologies will come to exercise an increasingly powerful role in how people will access media. Similarly it is easy to see how this globalisation of content might allow popular commercial material to become the exclusive preserve of large multinational content providers – vertically integrated media companies that might come to control the commercial middle ground and with it access to the platforms people use to view content.]
There can be no doubt that there continue to be many challenges to the existence of an independent and impartial media; and to the right of all citizens to freely access, circulate and receive a wide variety of unbiased and uncensored information. I would like to congratulate the Federation for all it does to uphold the rights and voices of journalists across the world. The issues you will be addressing at this Congress are of critical importance to the creation of societies which have at their heart the right of each individual to participate and to have their voices heard and respected.
I wish you well in your deliberations.