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Date: November 22, 2024 Fri

Time: 11:36 am

Results for journalists, violence against

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Author: Inter-American Commission on Human Rights

Title: Violence against journalists and media workers: Inter-American standards and national practices on prevention, protection and prosecution of perpetrators.

Summary: The murder of journalists and members of the media is the most extreme form of censorship. As the Inter-American Court of Human Rights ("Inter-American Court" or "Court") has observed, "journalism can only be exercised freely when those who carry out this work are not victims of threats or physical, mental or moral attacks or other acts of harassment." Such actions infringe, in a particularly radical way, not only the affected person's individual freedom of thought and expression, but also the collective dimension of this right. Acts of violence against journalists (term that should be understood broadly, from a functional perspective) or media workers for reasons connected to their professional activity violate both the individual's right to express and impart ideas, opinions and information, as well as the rights of citizens and societies as a whole to seek and receive information and ideas of any nature. Regarding this, as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression has stated, an attack on a journalist is "an attack against the principles of transparency and accountability, as well as the right to hold opinions and to participate in public debates, which are essential for democracy". When these crimes are committed with impunity, it encourages the commission of similar violent acts and can result in communicators being silenced or self censoring. As will be shown later on, impunity has a strong chilling effect on the exercise of freedom of expression, and its consequences for democracy - which depends on the free, open and dynamic exchange of ideas and information - are particularly serious. As the Inter-American Court has found on a number of occasions, freedom of expression is the cornerstone of the very existence of a democratic society; consequently, it can be said that a society that is not well informed is not a society that is truly free.

Details: Washington, DC: IACHR, 2013. 189p.

Source: Internet Resource: Accessed April 9, 2015 at: http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/expression/docs/reports/2014_04_22_Violence_WEB.pdf

Year: 2013

Country: International

URL: http://www.oas.org/en/iachr/expression/docs/reports/2014_04_22_Violence_WEB.pdf

Shelf Number: 135197

Keywords:
Freedom of the Press
Journalists, Crime against
Journalists, Violence against