New York: Stressing the crucial role journalists play in providing authentic information, Pakistan has called for stepped up efforts to ensure safety and security of media professionals, especially in the situations of armed conflict.
“As a former journalist myself, I know the risks journalists take to unveil and uphold the truth,” Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi told the UN Security Council on Wednesday, while speaking in a debate on Protection of Journalists in Conflict Situations. Noting that deliberate violence against journalists was on the rise, the Pakistani envoy said that impunity for such acts must come to an end.
She said that threats to the journalists had become more complex today as some regions of the world descend into chaos. “Several new trends are now in evidence, increased use of terror tactics, rising threats to journalists, lives in conflict zones, the danger posed especially to female and freelance media workers and the media’s resort to private armed escorts for their protection.”
“The challenge is not only to strengthen the means to assure the safety of journalists in conflict situations, but also ensure they are not exposed to avoidable risks,” Ambassador Lodhi added.
The high-level meeting chaired by Lithuania Foreign Minister Linas Linkevicius which holds the Council’s presidency for the month, also heard from the UN Deputy Secretary-General Jan Eliasson, who pointed to the troubling rise in the number of journalists killed since 2006 and the increasing targeting and threatening of journalists by criminal and terrorist groups.
