Journalist Support Committee: Media Uncommitted to Ethical Values Incite Violence and Hatred

As the world's nations celebrate the World Press Freedom Day, which was launched by UNESCO and ratified by the United Nations General Assembly as an annual international press freedom event and an occasion to commemorate the martyrs of freedom of opinion and expression on the third of May each year; We remind the world with the values of freedom, justice, and freedom of opinion and expression for which a large number of colleagues in Palestine, Yemen, Iraq, Bahrain, Lebanon, Egypt and all countries of the world have sacrificed their lives.

This day gives us the impetus to continue to work responsibly, to establish the principles of truth, and the sincere and constructive dialogue based on the values established by the charters of press work and press freedom away from distortion, defamation, racism and hate speech.

This day reminds the international community of the commitments made by various countries to respect freedoms and to allow expression of opinion. It also reminds every one of the rights of journalists to free expression and dissemination of information and facts about events without any restriction or censorship.

We salute all the journalists around the world on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day and emphasize the importance of strengthening the appropriate international judicial systems to protect the freedom of the press and the safety of journalists while ensuring global integrity. As well as to emphasize the need to address local and global obstacles to the achievement of the protection of freedoms, and to find mechanisms of cooperation between official local and international and non-official organizations to ensure the safety of the press and journalists.

The Journalist Support Committee considers biased and unethical media a source to fueling global violence and unrest, and to the incitement of hatred, and thereby threatening journalism and the safety of journalists. We, therefore, emphasize the enhancement of information and informatics expertise in the society to support the proper exercise of the freedom of electronic expression, as well as the need to find legal, and other measures that help to resist hate speech and violence in the media.

The Journalist Support Committee calls to support UNESCO's concept of Internet Universality, prompting countries to govern the Internet in accordance with human rights principles, which support openness and the provision of information to everybody. We stress the necessity to emphasize the right to freedom of expression, freedom of press and media institutions, and to not to be subjected to persecution and harassment based on Article 19 of the Charter of the United Nations. We reiterate the importance to find a legal path that guarantees freedom of expression and decrease the threats to the freedom of the press and the impunity of criminals against the press.

Liberty to all journalists, No to impunity,
Journalist Support Committee (JSC),
3rd of May 2017.