29 April 2014
For the first time ever, Reporters Without Borders is publishing a list of profiles of "100 information heroes" for World Press Freedom Day (3 May).
Through their courageous work or activism, these "100 heroes" help to promote the freedom enshrined in article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the freedom to "to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers. "They put their ideals in the service of the common good. They serve as examples.
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Press Freedom Day, which Reporters Without Borders helped to create, should be an Occasion for Paying tribute to the courage of the Journalists and bloggers who constantly Safety and sometimes Their Sacrifice Their Lives to Their vocation, " said Reporters Without Borders Secretary-General Christophe Deloire.
"These 'information heroes' are a source of inspiration to all men and women who aspire to freedom. Without their determination and the determination of all those like them, it would be simply impossible to extend the domain of freedom. "
This obviously non-exhaustive list pays homage not only to the 100 famous and less well known people on it, but also to all the professional and non-professional journalists who constantly help to shed light on the world and cover every aspect of its reality. This initiative aims to show that the fight for freedom of information requires not only active support for the victims of abuses but also the promotion of those who can serve as models.
The
list of "Heroes 100 information" comprises almost Women and Men of All ages (25 to 75) and 65 nations. The youngest,
Oudom Tat , is Cambodian and the oldest,
Muhammed Ziauddin , is Pakistani. Twenty-five of the heroes are from the Asia-Pacific region, 20 from the Middle East and North Africa, and eight from Europe. Iran, Russia, China, Eritrea, Azerbaijan, Mexico and Vietnam are each represented by at least three heroes.
As the lists includes such varied figures Anabel Hernandez , the Author of a bestseller On the collusion between politicians and Organized Mexican
, Saymaz Ismail , a Turkish Journalist who has been prosecuted for his reporting a Score of times, Hassan Ruvakuki , who was jailed for Members of a Rebel movement in interviewing Painters for 15 months, and Gerard Ryle , head of the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists, who has Contributed to The emergence of the Global Investigative Journalism.
Some work in democracies. They include Glenn Greenwald and Laura Poitras , who were U.S. citizens revealing the mass electronic surveillance methods for Responsible Used by the U.S. and British Intelligence agencies. Others, such As the Eastern Journalist Jila Bani Yaghoob , Work under the Most authoritarian regimes.
Not all are professional journalists. The Tongan citizen-Journalist Le Ngoc Thanh , for Example, is also a Catholic priest. MANY, As such Lirio Abbate , a specialist in the Sicilian ezers, have focused
On covering corruption and Organized. This is the case with Peter John Jaban , a Malaysian radio program host who spent years in self-Exile On London, Serhiy Lechtchenko , Ukraine From an Investigative Journalist, and Assen Yordanov , a Bulgarian Journalist who has been threatened repeatedly.
Activists like the profiles also include María Pia Matta , who has worked for nearly Ten years for the
Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC), defending the Freedom of Community radio stations in Latin America.
Courage is the common denominator. In Uzbekistan, the authorities had no compunction about torturing a Bekzhanov Muhammad to extract a Confession. In Eritrea, ranked Last in the 2014 Reporters Without Borders Press Freedom Index for the Seventh year Running, Dawit Isaac has languished in the dictator Issayas Afeworki's jails for the past 13 years. Mazen Darwish , founder of the Syrian Centre for Media and Freedom of Expression and winner of the RWB press freedom prize in 2012, has been held for more than two years by the Assad regime.
In the corner of my room, there’s a large air-tight plastic bag I open once a year, and occasionally glance at with mixed emotions. It contains, carefully folded, all the newspapers I could buy on 19th May 2009. Those who tried to buy a newspaper on this day may recall how difficult it was. Almost all the leading daily newspapers, especially in Sinhala, were sold out in the morning. With distribution networks disrupted on account of the unprecedented countrywide celebrations, all newspapers were just in short supply, or not available at news agents at all. I live in Nugegoda and drove as far as Bambalapitiya in search of newspapers on any other day I could have just walked up the road to purchase. I’m glad I made the effort. This was Sri Lanka’s New Day moment, a day no one, truth be told, had really planned for. The bold headlines, symbolic mastheads, full colour ads, op-eds, euphoric editorials and articles are long-forgotten, and yet, for many in the South, a sharp and welcome difference between war and post-war years endures. With this flows a gratitude towards the incumbents in power still powerful enough to varnish a systemic rot at the core of government and governance.
As per a secret agreement with the president, Engineering and Construction Services minister Wimal Weerawansa is to ‘leave the government’ in his latest playacting, for which he is famous after his ‘lemon puff playact’ in front of the UN office in Colombo. The president has promised him all facilities and security even after he ‘leaves the government’.
Salem-News.com-
