Toespraak bij 15-jarig jubileum Press Now
Gelegenheid: 15-jarig jubileum Press NowMr Schinkelshoek, Mr Valk, ladies and gentlemen,
Thank you very much for the opportunity to address you all this afternoon – it is a great pleasure to be here. First of all, I would like to convey the regrets of the Minister of Foreign Affairs, Maxime Verhagen, who was looking forward to attending Press Now’s 15th anniversary today. Unfortunately, he was called to parliament for a debate on the European Union’s enlargement. As much as the Minister would have liked to be here such calls must be heeded – that’s part and parcel of the democratic system we live in.
This afternoon’s topic, press freedom, is also part and parcel of democracy. Democracy is much more than establishing certain institutions, such as elections and a parliament. Democracy concerns the overall relations between state and society, relations that should be based on democratic principles and human rights. In this struggle for what I would like to call ‘thick’ democracy – as opposed to the ‘thin’ democracy that is reflected by the mere presence of institutions – press freedom is one of the key factors. A free press is one of the pillars of a democratic society.
And this is precisely what Press Now has been doing for the past fifteen years: supporting independent media in conflict regions and transition countries, with the aim of promoting open and democratic societies. Press Now has built an impressive track record in this regard, and I would like to congratulate its Director Wilco de Jonge and all the staff on their achievements. One of the most famous broadcasters that receive support from Press Now is B92, which was a rare outlet for independent news in Serbia under Slobodan Milosevic and which is still an independent broadcaster in Serbia today. I remember B92 well as a call for change, a force for liberation through culture, during the turbulent 1990s. Its message – to ‘question authority, think for yourself and don’t swallow anyone’s propaganda’1 – exemplifies many of the activities Press Now facilitates.
(Freedom of expression under attack)
Ladies and gentlemen,
The change that B92 helped bring about in Serbia is needed in many other parts of the world as well. Global press freedom suffered a clear decline in 2007, as Freedom House showed in its most recent survey. Their Press Freedom Map indicates a ten-year trend of stagnation in media freedom, and in some key countries and regions an outright decline over the past decade. Journalists are struggling to work in increasingly hostile environments in almost every region of the world. There were titbits of positive news as well: there was some improvement in the region with the least press freedom – the Middle East and North Africa. Egypt for example moved from the ‘Not Free’ to the ‘Partly Free’ category.
But overall, the situation gives great cause for concern. All of you will remember the Saffron Revolution last year in Burma, when monks took to the streets of Rangoon in protest at the regime’s appalling lack of responsiveness to its own people’s needs and its flagrant human rights violations. Images of the way in which the Burmese junta dealt with the peaceful protesters found their way from cell phones to CNN in no time. Journalists risked their lives to show the world what was going on in Burma, and they did so again in the aftermath of cyclone Nargis. The danger they exposed themselves to is gradually becoming clear now that the number of political prisoners in Burma has risen sharply from 1,200 in 2007 to over 2,100 today. Many of them are reporters or editors who have received extravagant sentences. Minister Verhagen has strongly condemned the flood of recent convictions which, in his words, ‘sound too bizarre to be true ... yet they are a reality’. The Minister was responding in particular to the 45-year prison sentence imposed on the comedian Zarganar, who was trying to help the survivors of Nargis.
What the Burmese junta is doing, two years before the next elections, is clearing its streets of any dissenting voices. Exactly the same is happening in Sudan, where elections are scheduled for next year. Every night, censors visit the papers. ‘With one stroke of the pen, we must let go of a story,’ a columnist of Ajras Al-Hurriya told NRC Handelsblad earlier this month.2 The Sudanese journalists decided to go on strike for three days to protest against the press gag. But to no avail. ‘Free elections are impossible without a free press; Bashir has already won,’ says the Chief Editor of the Khartoum Monitor, Alfred Taban, who has spent a great deal of his professional life behind bars.3
(Defending freedom of expression)
The Burmese and Sudanese leaders, like many others around the world, are riding roughshod over the key principle of freedom of expression, which was included in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights sixty years ago as a universal human right that applies to all people, in all places and at all times. In an attempt to safeguard their own vested interests and consolidate their power base, they are cracking down on journalists who write unfavourable things about their government. An informed public is a threat to them, and an open information policy is a risk they are unwilling to take.
This is something the Netherlands takes issue with. We champion freedom of expression, as it is essential for peaceful democracy, freedom of the individual, and individual and collective development. Freedom of expression – including press freedom and freedom of access to information – is a fundamental human right that is central to the protection of other human rights. It acts like a catalyst: freedom of expression allows people to demand other human rights, such as justice, equality before the law and freedom of religion or belief. Without freedom of expression, these other freedoms cannot be properly exercised. Moreover, freedom of expression makes electoral democracy meaningful, builds public trust in government and strengthens mechanisms for holding governments accountable.
It is not enough to say that in the long run, there is no future for authoritarian rulers because in a globalised world, it is impossible to halt a free flow of information, and people will insist on respect for their human rights and fundamental freedoms once they learn about these rights and freedoms. The Sudanese professor Yusuf Fadl Hasan made a very valid remark in this regard. He said that because of new technologies, like mobile phones, the world wide web and satellite television, the free word can no longer be suppressed by the authorities. ‘There is no way back; democratisation will go on.’4 True as this may be in the long run, it is scant comfort for human rights defenders and people defending the freedom of expression as we speak. They deserve our full support right now! Press Now is providing such support, by facilitating the protection of individual journalists whenever their freedom of expression is compromised and by strengthening the capacity of journalists in Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, the Balkans, Iran, Iraq, Sudan and other places where freedom of expression is not as self-evident as in our own part of the world.
Ladies and gentlemen,
I would like to emphasise that we should not interpret freedom of expression as a licence to insult other people at will. Freedom of expression carries with it a responsibility to consider the consequences of one’s words, as explicitly stated in the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. I need only remind you of the horrific events that took place in Rwanda in 1994, where media helped inciting the crowds to commit atrocities, and everyone will instinctively know what I mean. Freedom of expression is not without limits. Everyone has the responsibility to show respect for the rights and reputations of others. The Dutch government repeatedly stressed this point when a Dutch member of parliament released his anti-Islam film earlier this year, and we will continue to do so in the future. Not because we want to abolish freedom of expression, but because we recognise that it should be exercised responsibly.
The Dutch Constitution protects freedom of expression and we go to great lengths defending it, in our own society and internationally, including when it is used to express views that are controversial. Whether a person who has expressed an opinion has broken the law is something only the courts can decide. Again, this is the tried-and-tested democratic way of doing things. This is also why the Netherlands was not in favour of the resolution the Organisation on the Islamic Conference presented at the United Nations in New York, calling on states to create legal and constitutional systems to prevent ‘incitement to religious hatred’. The resolution was adopted earlier this week, despite a high number of no-votes and abstentions. In our view, this resolution presents another obstacle to the fundamental freedoms of expression and belief.
(Media diversity in Dutch human rights policy)
Free media are essential for freedom of expression and for the voice of human rights to be heard. As part of its human rights strategy, entitled ‘Human Dignity for All’, the Netherlands has pledged to support activities and organisations that work to expand the diversity of the media in countries where they are very one-sided. People have a right to hear more than one point of view on the national and international political situation. Media diversity is an important precondition for healthy public debate. In countries where press freedom is under pressure, the Netherlands will work actively to maintain or restore freedom and diversity. Media diversity is an explicit objective of the Human Rights Fund. Through our embassies, we fund training programmes for journalists from a host of countries through Radio Nederland, the Dutch equivalent of the BBC World Service. Another programme aims at capacity building among Arab journalists in cooperation with Arab NGOs and media institutes in Egypt, Yemen and Qatar. And we fund a number of activities specifically aimed at improving the freedom of the media in Iran. Finally, we are proud to contribute to international NGOs that focus on the protection and promotion of freedom of expression, such as Press Now.
Ladies and gentlemen,
A recent study shows that eight out of ten people worldwide think it is important that the media carries out its work without government control. The University of Maryland questioned 18,000 people from twenty different countries on the issue of press freedom. The result? There is overwhelming support for press freedom – despite small but vocal minorities from various regions in the world that oppose it.5
I would like to conclude on this positive note. Sixty years after the Universal Declaration on Human Rights was adopted, 80 per cent of the world population still agrees that people are entitled to non-partisan information and ideas from the media. I am certain that over the next fifteen years, Press Now will continue its valuable work and help to convince the remaining 20 per cent of the world population that press freedom is also, ultimately, to their benefit. The Dutch government will happily support Press Now in meeting that challenge.
Finally, I would like to congratulate you once again on your achievements, and I wish you every success in the future. Thank you.
1: Matthew Collin, This is Serbia Calling: Rock ‘n’ Roll Radio and Belgrade’s Underground Resistance, London, 2001, p. 28.
2: NRC Handelsblad, 17 November 2008.
3: Ibid.
4: Ibid.
5: http://www.villamedia.nl/archief-vaknieuws/bericht/brede-steun-voor-vrije-pers/