Lord Alton’s contribution to Short debate: Steps being taken by the government, as a member of the Media Freedom Coalition, to ensure the safety and security of journalists and media workers worldwide. 24th April 2025
House of Lords
24th April 2025
Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights guarantees the right to freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to hold opinions without interference, and to seek, receive, and impart information and ideas through any media, regardless of frontiers.
In exercising this right, too many journalists face harassment, prosecution, asset freezing, disinformation, kidnapping, even death. UNESCO suggest that in 2024 at least 68 journalists were killed – all at a time when media outlets are being closed – as a consequence of hostility of funding cuts..
Does the Minister agree that when crimes against journalists are left unpunished a lack of accountability, and impunity, merely emboldens the perpetrators.
Some of these crimes involve transnational repression – the subject of a current Inquiry by the Joint Committee for Human Rights
We have received 1,244 pages of written submissions and oral testimonies including evidence of systematic targeting of BBC staff and their families in countries like Russia and Iran. Over 300 BBC World Service journalists – around 15% – now operate in exile.
We heard from Jimmy Lai’s lawyer about his imprisonment in Hong Kong – jailed by the CCP for the crime of journalism and free media. When did we last raise his case?
We heard of the shocking attempted murder in London of an Iranian journalist, left bleeding on the pavement outside his studio as three assailants headed for Heathrow and out of the country.
The JCHR has been told that “There has been a serious escalation of harassment and security threats directed at journalists reporting on Iran from abroad…”– including credible death and kidnap threats.
The Committee will this week be publishing some of this evidence.
Will the Minister urgently look at this evidence and respond to the BBC’s call for “better coordination across Government departments” in providing support for journalists and their families and tell us how we intend to use international fora to make the case more effectively for Article 19.
