Archives - Program 2020

When the messenger is being shot: attacks on journalists

Access to free and independent information is essential to the life of any democracy. What to do when those who are supposed to produce it find themselves threatened, prevented from doing their work and attacked?

Discussion to follow in livestream on fifdh.org
Attacks on journalists and freedom of the press are no longer limited to authoritarian regimes. Journalists are targeted worldwide, whether in Egypt, where the Government harshly represses any attempt to report on its abuses, in Saudi Arabia with the murder of Jamal Khashogghi in Istanbul, or in France, where several journalists have been threatened, assaulted and taken into custody. It is imperative that we protect these men and women who sometimes put their lives at risk in order to bring us accurate news, an essential part of our democracies. Media-bashing is a global phenomenon: from Trump to Al Sissi, from Macron to Erdogan, the journalistic profession is maligned, weakened and under attack; an early warning of the spread of autocratic methods. How can this be avoided?
Courage: Journalism is not a crime tells the story of three journalists from Myanmar, Azerbaijan and Turkey who face the consequences of the climate of fear in which they work.

Journalists

Monday 9 March

19:30

Espace Pitoëff - Grande salle

Co-presented with the Federal Department of Foreign Affairs (FDFA), TRIAL International and the International Commission of Jurists (ICJ)

Introduction

Sandra Lendenmann Winterberg Head of the section for Human Rights Policy, Human Security Division, DFAE

Speakers

Agnes Callamard UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions and Director of "Freedom of Expression", Columbia University

Hatice Cengiz Justice for Jamal

Moderated by

Josephine Schmidt Executive Editor, The New Humanitarian.

This debat is preceded by the movie:

Film thématique

Courage - Journalism is Not a Crime

By Tom Heinemann

They are devoted to journalism but are under immense pressure by governments, companies and criminals. They use the freedom of the press to fight corruption and injustice. They reveal what those in power want to hide. They face torture, jail and even death, but still they keep on fighting. From three different countries on different continents – with one thing in common. They have Courage – because Journalism is not a crime.