An appeal to all governments to protect journalists’ rights and end impunity by Archbishop Desmond Tutu, 1984 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate and chairman of The Elders, issued on the occasion of the Conference on “Safety and Protection of Journalists: A Responsibility for the World” held at City University London on 1 June 2011. The conference is organised by the Directors of the Initiative on Impunity and the Rule of Law, a joint project of the Centre for Freedom of the Media (CFOM) at the University of Sheffield and the Centre for Law, Justice and Journalism (CLJJ) at City University London.
“In the struggle against apartheid, journalists willing to report the truth were among our most important allies, and we knew that they often took great personal risks to do so. The right of journalists to report freely is of vital importance to people in all parts of the world, and those who use violence, assassination or detention to try and intimidate journalists must be held accountable for their actions. The high toll of deaths and injuries among media workers around the world in recent years is outrageous and unacceptable. I appeal to governments everywhere to ensure that law-enforcement and judicial authorities protect journalists’ rights and take action to end impunity for such crimes.”
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, 1 June 2011
