New York, 2 May 2002

Good morning, everyone, and welcome to United Nations Headquarters.

I'm delighted that you have all come here to mark World Press Freedom Day. As you know, the right to a free press is enshrined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which clearly states that the right to freedom of opinion and expression includes freedom "to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers".

This is a core value for the United Nations. Only where this freedom is guaranteed can human beings feel at all confident of enjoying their other rights, from the right to life to the right to development.

Our commitment to this freedom remains the same from year to year. But each year brings us new reasons to deepen it, as the attacks on press freedom come from different quarters, and new sacrifices are made by those in the front line: reporters, photographers, cameramen and women, and in many countries also commentators who risk their personal freedom, if not their lives, by publishing what those in power would rather not hear.

The last 12 months have produced a tragically long list of new names - 30 in all - of journalists who died in the line of duty, or were murdered for reasons connected with their work. In addition, according to the authoritative Committee to Protect Journalists, there were 118 journalists in jail at the beginning of 2002.

This year, our observance of World Press Freedom Day focuses especially on the war against global terrorism - on press coverage of it, and on its implications for press freedom.

The spectre of terrorism, which has long haunted many of our societies, moved to the centre of the world stage on 11 September last year, with the horrific attacks in this city and elsewhere. Those attacks have created a new world climate, with a host of new factors that oblige us to re-evaluate press freedom, and new threats against which we must defend it.

Your panel discussion this morning is an opportunity to gain a clearer perspective on the swirl of constantly breaking news, and to analyse some of those new threats to press freedom - threats that come directly from terrorism itself, and threats stemming from some of the measures that societies take to protect themselves against it.

You will hear a panel of very experienced journalists, from widely varying backgrounds, discuss the heightened role that terrorism has come to play in media coverage, and the special challenges this issues brings - both for reporters in the streets and for those in newsrooms who have to decide which facts and images to present to the public, and in what way.

In January this year the news that Daniel Pearl, a Wall Street Journal correspondent, had been kidnapped in Pakistan filled all of us with foreboding. He was one of many journalists who live with the constant threat of violence as they perform their duties. His abduction, the confused and confusing demands put forward by his kidnappers, and then his brutal murder - all brought home to us, in the grimmest fashion, the risks that media professionals face. All of us shared the terrible ordeal of his wife, whose child - soon to be born - will have to grow up deprived of a father's love.

In a few minutes we shall be privileged to watch an interview with Mariane Pearl. We should all be grateful to her for agreeing to this appearance, in order to commemorate her husband and uphold the ideal for which he gave his life, at a time when she is more than ever entitled to privacy.

Daniel Pearl was a victim of terrorism, who died reporting on an aspect of the war against terrorism. Others may fall victim - as many have in the past - to acts of repression or restriction applied by States in the name of counter-terrorism.

Clearly, measures are needed to protect society against terrorism, and these measures will sometimes involve sacrifices of personal freedom. All the international human rights instruments make provision for that.

But, as the Secretary-General said last month, counter-terrorism must not "become an all-embracing concept that is used to cloak, or justify, violations of human rights". That applies especially to the right to freedom of opinion and expression. Terrorism cannot be fought successfully without news media that are free to enquire into the causes of terrorism, and the political and social conditions in which it thrives.

Equally, the media have important responsibilities in a society threatened by terrorism - in particular, the responsibility to report and analyse developments objectively, without encouraging panic or giving way to public moods of hysteria or revenge.

Let me suggest some important questions for your distinguished panellists to wrestle with:

• What price are we prepared to pay for security?
  
• How can we ensure that the security measures we do take do not undermine the free and democratic character of our societies?
  
• Have the media risen to the challenge of terrorism and its impact?
  
• Is their coverage of events enabling us to better understand the complex issues behind the headlines?
  
• Is their responsibility limited to reporting the facts, or should they be actively engaged in the battle against xenophobia and group hatred?

I'm sure you can think of many more - and I look forward eagerly to hearing the panel's answers. What I'm sure we can all agree on is that, in protecting our security, we must not risk damaging fundamental freedoms - and that one of the most fundamental freedoms is freedom of the press.

Thank you very much.