2 May 2023
18:30-20:00
Room 4A, House of Lords Parliament Square
Speakers
Karuna Nundy, Member of the High Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom and advocate at Inda’s Supreme Court (via video)
Amberin Zaman, UK-based Turkish journalist, Al-Monitor international correspondent; Coalition of Women Journalists press freedom Hero
Maria Ordzhonikidze, Director of Justice for Journalists Foundation
Kingsley Abbott, former International Commission of Jurists head of International Criminal Justice; Director of Institute of Commonwealth Studies
Moderator, William Horsley, International Director, Centre for Freedom of the Media; AEJ UK Chairman
Hosted by Lord Black of Brentwood, Deputy Chairman of the Telegraph Media Group
The past decade has seen ambitious initiatives put forward by the UN, the Council of Europe, the legal community, human rights groups and journalists, all aimed at reversing the slide towards the forceful suppression of free speech by state authorities and other powerful forces. These mobilisations all stem from the conviction that freedom of expression and media freedom together give effect to a wide range of other fundamental rights and freedoms that are now under extraordinary pressure. Headlines from all over the world tell how journalists increasingly face being publicly vilified, criminalised, intimidated or killed to deter them from exposing corruption, crime and serous abuses of power.
As leaders assemble at the UN in New York and UNESCO in Paris to mark the 30th anniversary of the first World Press Freedom Day and give new impetus to the 2012 UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists, our speakers will present bold but practical pathways to reclaim the information sphere for unhindered journalism, open public debate and free and fair elections.
The meeting is organised by the Westminster United Nations Association and the Centre for Freedom of the Media.