United Nations [ Cultural Organization FREEDOM OF INFORMATION: WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY 2010 United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization FREEDOM OF INFORMATION: WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY 2010 © UNESCO 2011 All rights reserved http://www.unesco.org/webworld Cover photo: words carved into the sandstone portal of the Forgan Smith Building at the University of Queensland Photo credit: University of Queensland The designations employed and the presentation of material throughout this document do not imply the expression of any opin- ion whatsoever on the part of UNESCO concerning the legal status of any country, territory, city or area or of its authorities, or concerning the delimitation of its frontiers or boundaries. The authors are responsible for the choice and the presentation of the facts contained in this document and for the opinions expressed therein, which are not necessarily those of UNESCO and do not commit the Organization Typeset by UNESCO CI-2011/WS/1 Rev. CONTENTS MESSAGE by Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO 5 FOREWORD by Janis Karklins, Assistant Director-General for Communication and 6 Information, UNESCO INTRODUCTION by Michael Bromley, Head of the School of Journalism and Communication, 7 University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia UNESCO CONCEPT NOTE 13 FOR WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY 2010 CONFERENCE OPENING CEREMONY WELCOME ADDRESSES 19 Maurie McNarn, AO 19 Acting Vice-Chancellor and Executive Director (Operations) The University of Queensland Hon. Cameron Dick, MP, 21 Attorney-General and Minister for Industrial Relations, State Government of Queensland H.E. Ms Penelope Wensley, AO 23 Governor of Queensland The University of Queensland Centenary Oration 25 Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO PART 1. FREEDOM OF INFORMATION: CURRENT STATUS, CHALLENGES AND 31 IMPLICATIONS FOR NEWS MEDIA Right to Know: an Entitlement for All, not a Favour 32 by Frank La Rue, Special Rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights An Australian Perspective 33 by John McMillan, Australian Information Commissioner Designate FOI in Papua New Guinea: Challenges and the Way Forward 38 by Chronox Manek, Chief Ombudsman of Papua New Guinea Some African Experiences 41 by Edetaen Ojo, Executive Director, Media Rights Agenda, Nigeria Thoughts from the Panel 46 by Toby Mendel, Executive Director, Centre for Law and Democracy, Canada PART 2. FREEDOM OF INFORMATION AS A TOOL FOR EMPOWERMENT: 51 ENABLING PROTECTION AND ACHIEVEMENT OF OTHER RIGHTS Good Institutions, the Public Sphere and Media Literacy 52 by Ulla Carlsson, Professor/Director, Nordicom, University of Gothenburg Nepal: Freedom of Information 59 by Taranath Dahal, Chairperson, Freedom Forum, Nepal Whose Media? Whose Freedom? 63 by P V Satheesh, Director, Deccan Development Society, Hyderabad, India Free Media and Freedom of Information 65 by Oliver Spencer, Program Officer, ARTICLE 19 PART 3. TRANSPARENCY, ACCOUNTABILITY AND THE FIGHT AGAINST 69 CORRUPTION: FREEDOM OF INFORMATION LAWS AND BEYOND On the Leading Edge 70 by Nadezhda Azhgikhina, Secretary of the Russian Union of Journalists Full effect of the Right to Know in Latin America: a process of cultural transformation 75 by Álvaro Herrero, Executive Director, Asociación por los Derechos Civiles Post-Soviet Countries: Reviving Mass Media as a Propaganda Tool 78 by Rozlana Taukina, President of the Journalists in Danger Fund, Kazakhstan Media in Indonesia: No single day without news on corruption 81 by Atmakusumah Astraatmadja, Media observer/columnist, Jakarta, Indonesia PART 4. THE RIGHT TO KNOW IN A DIGITAL AGE 85 What Africa tells us about access to Information 86 by Guy Berger, Head of the School of Journalism and Media Studies, Rhodes University, Grahamstown, South Africa. A European Perspective 92 by Alexandra Föderl-Schmid, Editor-in-chief, Der Standard, Austria A View from the Pacific 93 by Frances Herman, Adviser, Vanuatu Broadcasting Corporation The Decline of “News” and the Rise of Stakeholder Media 96 by Mark Lee Hunter PART 5. JOURNALISTS UNDER PRESSURE: EXPERIENCES FROM THE FRONTLINE 101 Breaking through Barriers 102 by Dan Southerland, Executive Editor, Radio Free Asia The Right to Know in Africa 105 by Robert Mukombozi, Investigative Journalist/Conflict Reporter, Rwanda The Right to Know in Palestine 108 by Valentina Al-Ama, Communication and Project Director, Ma’an News Network, Palestine Held Hostage in Somalia 113 by Nigel Brennan, Freelance Photo-journalist, Australia PART 6. THREATS TO MEDIA FREEDOM AND FREEDOM OF INFORMATION IN THE 115 SOUTH PACIFIC Voiceless in the Newsstand 116 by Sophie Foster, Associate Editor, The Fiji Times, Suva. Fiji. The Samoa Observer Story 119 by Savea Sano Malifa, Publisher and Editor, The Samoa Observer, Apia, Samoa Pacific Media Freedom Soup: HIV/AIDS, Media Regionalism and the Right to Know 124 by Lisa Williams-Lahari, Founding Member and Projects Leader, WAVE (Women Advancing a Vision of Empowerment) Media Network, Cook Islands Some Vanuatu Experiences 127 by Marie-Noelle Ferrieux-Patterson, President, Transparency International, Port Vila, Vanuatu WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY PRIZE AWARD CEREMONY AND CONFERENCE 129 CLOSING Closing addresses Michael Bromley, Head of the School of Journalism and Communication, University of 130 Queensland, Brisbane. Australia Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO 131 UNESCO/GUILLERMO CANO WORLD PRESS FREEDOM PRIZE 2010 Acceptance speech by Mónica González Mujica, Chile 133 ANNEXES 137 ANNEX 1 Brisbane Declaration – Freedom of Information: the Right to Know 138 ANNEX 2 Universal Declaration of Human Rights 141 FREEDOM OF INFORMATION: FREEDOM OF INFORMATION: KNOW THE RIGHT TO 4 Message by Irina Bokova Director-General of UNESCO, on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, 3 May 2010 This World Press Freedom Day, whose theme is Freedom of Information, offers us an occasion to remember the importance of our right to know. Freedom of Information is the principle that organisations and governments have a duty to share or provide ready access to information they hold, to anyone who wants it, based on the public’s right to be informed. The right to know is central for upholding other basic rights, for furthering transparency, justice and develop- ment. Hand-in-hand with the complementary notion of freedom of expression, it underpins democracy. We may not consciously exercise our right to know. But each time we pick up a newspaper, turn on the TV or radio news, or go on the Internet, the quality of what we see or hear depends on these media having access to accurate and up to date information. Obstacles in the way of our right to know take many forms, from a lack of resources and inadequate infrastructure to deliberate obstruction. Far too many journalists exercise their profession in an environment where restrictions on information are the norm, where dealing with pressure, harassment intimidation or even physical assault are all in a day’s work. Last year UNESCO condemned the killing of 77 journalists. For the most part these were not war casualties but local reporters covering local stories. I invite all those commemorating World Press Freedom Day around the globe to observe a minute of silence: to remember those whom it is too late to help; to honour the journalists who paid with their lives for our right to know. But today let us also acknowledge the significant advances that have been made. More and more countries around the world are adopting freedom of information legislation. This makes it easier to scrutinize government actions, and it reinforces public accountability. Meanwhile faster and cheaper technology means that more people in the world have ready access to information from outside their immediate environment than ever before. Now is the time for us to capitalise on these advances, by strengthening institutions, by providing the necessary training for information professionals, by fostering greater open-ness within our public sectors and greater aware- ness among the public. PRESS FREEDOMWORLD I call on governments, civil society, the news media and individuals everywhere to join forces with UNESCO in promoting Freedom of Information all over the world. DAY 2010 DAY 5 Foreword by JAnis KArkliNs Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information, UNESCO As the number of freedom of information laws adopted I also hope that the contributions compiled in this pub- around the world multiplied in the past two decades, so lication will be material for thought on the possibilities did the examples of how access to public information can and dilemmas posed by new technologies. As the flow of help people to demand accountability and responsiveness ideas and knowledge now flourishes through an unprec- from their governments, protect and advance their rights. edented variety of channels and forms, as well as at a Underlying many of the experiences collected in this report never-before seen pace, to the traditional attempts to con- are therefore the themes of empowerment, socio-economic trol free expression one should add many emerging ones. development, openness, transparency, informed participa- tion and good governance. Freedom of information is about Along with the enhanced reach of surveillance methods all that. That is why it is so important for freedom of informa- and new ways of censorship, we witness growth in the tion to be guaranteed through a legal and regulatory frame- amount of personal data collected by public and private work in accordance with international standards. Equally sector actors. Also increasing are the concerns about the relevant is for laws to be translated into practice through so-called trade-offs between transparency and openness, on effective mechanisms, and fundamentally supported by an the one hand, and security and privacy, on the other. All unwavering political will to implement them, a strong cul- this has added new dimensions to the debates on freedom ture of openness in civic service, a widespread awareness of expression and the related regulation, the range of issues about their benefits and their active use by society at large.