(WAJA/IFEX) – The following is a WAJA statement on World Press Freedom Day: STATEMENT BY THE WEST AFRICAN JOURNALISTS ASSOCIATION ON WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, which falls on May 3, 2000, The West African Journalists Association wishes to salute all journalists for their courage and strength in […]
(WAJA/IFEX) – The following is a WAJA statement on World Press Freedom Day:
STATEMENT BY THE WEST AFRICAN JOURNALISTS ASSOCIATION ON WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY
On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, which falls on May 3, 2000, The West African Journalists Association wishes to salute all journalists for their courage and strength in defending freedom of expression worldwide.
WAJA particularly salutes journalists in West Africa who practice their profession in extremely difficult conditions. Hardly a week, a month passes without a journalist being detained or killed in West Africa and other regions of the world.
We recall with pain the April murder of popular Gambian journalists Omar Barrow, a news editor with the privately-owned Senegalese radio station SUD FM, who was shot dead on April 10 by a member of the Gambian army’s anti-riot unit. His tragic end is the fate many journalists in our region here suffered over the years.
Elsewhere in the sub-region and on the African continent journalists and media houses continue to be subjected to all kinds of harassment and intimidation through arrests and detention of journalists, closure of media houses and criminal prosecution of journalists for their role in promoting freedom of expression.
It is pertinent to note that the global search for human progress anywhere in the world is predicated on a free press. The declaration of May 3 as World Press Freedom Day by the General Conference of UNESCO, and basic UN Documents like the Declaration of Windhoek as well as provisions in many national constitutions which guarantee press freedom all go to support the idea of press freedom as the basis for development.
Ironically many governments in the region continue to implement policies and measures that restrict the boundaries of press freedom.
For instance there is no country in the sub-region that has in place a freedom of information act that can enhance journalistic practice and ensure all citizens their right to freedom of expression and access to information.
Again, all the new democracies in the region, in spite of grandiloquent provisions in national constitutions for a free press, have parallel criminal libel laws and other statutes which hinder press freedom.
As the world together observes World Press Freedom Day, it is our hope that every enabling environment will be created by society to ensure that governments do not take measures that muzzle the press.
It is also our hope that journalists worldwide and in our region will continue to struggle for press freedom and use their media to promote peace and stability.
WAJA wishes to use this occasion to renew its pledge to use its membership in all the 16 countries of the ECOWAS sub-region for press freedom and socio-economic development, peace and stability.
Kabral Blay-Amihere
WAJA President
