Press freedom as a keystone of freedom of expression’s enabling role.

 

The right to freedom of expression and its corollary, the right to access information, allow us to seek, receive and impart information, ideas, concepts and beliefs across borders and cultures. And in this exercise, the media and journalists play an essential role: they help verify and disseminate facts, they create spaces for ideas to be debated and for the voiceless to be heard, and they render complex matters intelligible for the public at large.

“Without facts, you can't have truth. Without truth, you can't have trust. Without trust, we have no shared reality, no democracy, and it becomes impossible to deal with our world's existential problems: climate, coronavirus, the battle for truth.” Maria Ressa, recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize, 2021 

Through their various platforms, media organizations, journalists and media workers can reach wide audiences, including the most isolated and marginalized communities, and inform them about their fundamental freedoms, and how to exercise them. This way, communities who might otherwise have limited access or might be inundated with disinformation can obtain the information they need to exercise rights such as access to health, education, and justice, or to fight against gender and economic inequalities. Likewise, through their journalistic investigations and fact-checking, media outlets and journalists inform us about current issues and how these can impact our rights.

 Investigative journalism around the world uncovers criminal activities and wrongdoings that affect the human rights of citizens. The journalistic work has a track record in ensuring for instance the right to health or to life and has exposed violations of rights through misuse of public funds, human trafficking, illegal surveillance acts, matters of discrimination and many more. Issues illuminated through research by investigative journalists have led to meaningful policy changes for the benefit of society. Investing in independent public interest journalism is an investment in resilient and informed societies.

 Freedom of expression is also closely connected to other rights under the UNESCO mandate, namely the right to education, which relies on access to credible information as well as the right of scholars and teachers to freely express themselves. Furthermore, cultural rights such as the right to artistic freedom and creative expression are deeply entwined with freedom of expression. In light of the imminent threat to human life posed by climate change and the need to protect the environment, freedom of expression also plays an important role. Access to verified information on environmental issues is crucial for all citizens. Particularly, environmental activists and journalists need to be able to freely report on threats to the environment and call out actors causing harm. 

“Free speech and a free press not only make abuses of governmental powers less likely, they also enhance the likelihood that people’s basic social needs will be met. Secrecy reduces the information available to the citizenry, hobbling people’s ability to participate meaningfully. Essentially, meaningful participation in democratic processes requires informed participants.” Joseph Stiglitz, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, 2001

 Without a free flow of information, and the help of the media in this effort, most cases of malpractice, corruption and human rights violations would remain hidden. And without collective awareness of these violations, we would not be able to act to address them. The crucial importance of press freedom in upholding human rights and the impact of its limitations on all fundamental freedoms has been made particularly clear during recent emergencies that have affected the world, ranging from the COVID-19 pandemic to electoral crises, armed conflicts, or environmental issues. Yet, attempts to silence the media continue to multiply around the globe, with old methods of censorship, violence and harassment being accompanied by increasingly pervasive digital attacks. 

"No famine has ever taken place in the history of the world in a functioning democracy." Amartya Sen, recipient of the Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences, 1998