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Statement by Mr. Masood Haider
President
United Nations Correspondents Association
Mr. Chairman:
Thank you very much for inviting me to participate in
this important event in my capacity as president
of the United Nations Correspondents' Association. I
hope that our discussions here will contribute to
furthering press freedom around the world. We believe
that it is entirely appropriate to associate UNCA, a
representative body of journalists from around the
world, with this solemn occasion.
World Press Freedom Day is an opportunity to remind
the world of the importance of protecting the
fundamental rights of freedom of expression and
freedom of the press, as stated in Article 19 of the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Without these
rights, democracy cannot prevail and development
remains unattainable.
On its part part, UNCA has always striven to protect
and defend the rights of its ever expanding members
who are dedicated to covering United Nations
activities. We also seek to expand facilities for them
here at the UN Headquarters in New York so as to
create the right environment for journalists to carry
out their professional duties. To that end, UNCA and
DPI, after negotiations, have recently decided to
revive a dormant standing committee aimed at resolving
the problems facing the journalists at the UN. I
believe this is an an important step and I look
forward to our first meeting in the near future. Here,
I also appeal to the secretariat and diplomats
accredited to the U.N. to cooperate with us in
achieving our legitimate objectives.
Mr. Chairman:
As we observe World Press Freedom day, we are
witnessing an unprecedented expansion of freedom of
expression in many parts of the third world. I say
this because in the past when calls for press freedom
were made, they were directed only at the developing
countries. No one can deny that the privately owned
third world print and electronic outlets are making
enormous progress, having gained the confidence of
their people through objective and unbiased reporting
and quality programmes on topics that were taboo in
the past. It is but natural that people in the third
world are increasingly turning to their own media,
breaking the monoply of some international channels.
Not only that, even the official communications
channels in those countries are suffering at the hands
of private news media. This is certainly a cause of
celebration in our pursuit for greater press freedom
around the world. The process has begun and it seems
irreversible. The trend towards exercising
independence deserves to be encouraged as the third
world media is still in a developing state.
One more point: Back in the early 80's, a New World
Information and Communications Order was proposed. It
was aimed at developing a two-way flow of information
between developed and developing countries to create
better understanding among nations in the interest
of world peace. The proposal was made at a time when
the flow of information was unidirectional-- from
North to South. One of the communications order's
guideline was, and, I quote, "respect for each
people’s cultural identity and the right of each nation to
inform the world public about its interests, its
aspirations and its social and cultural values"
(unquote). The initiative was denounced as a form of
censorship by certain quarters. But recent events have
serve to confirm the value of that visionary proposal.
Had it been accepted and become part an ethics for the
world media, we would NOT have gone through such
tensions and turmoil as in the aftermath of the recent
controversy over cartoons that our secretary-general
rightfully denounced.
I thank you for your kind attention.
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