Latest news from our press freedom round-up, recapping attacks on journalists, their right to publish, and our right to know. Here’s the news for the week of September 22, 2024.
Assange to testify before the Council of Europe
On October 1, Julian Assange will give testimony before the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) in Strasbourg. The hearing marks Assange’s first official testimony on his case since before his imprisonment in 2019.
The address comes after PACE’s Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights approved a draft resolution regarding Julian Assange’s conviction and detention and their chilling effect on human rights, earlier this month.
The hearing will take place on Tuesday 1 October in Room 1 of the Palais de l’Europe, from 8.30 a.m. to 10 a.m. CEST and will be live-streamed on the Assembly’s YouTube channel. Watch here.
Press freedom groups denounce Israel’s raid and closure of Al Jazeera bureau in Ramallah
The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Israeli authorities to stop harassing and obstructing Al Jazeera:
“CPJ is deeply alarmed by Israel’s closure of Al Jazeera’s office in the occupied West Bank, just months after it shuttered Al Jazeera’s operations in Israel after deeming it a threat to national security.”
UK’s National Union of Journalists called the raid a “brazen attack on press freedom” and condemned it as “a dangerous act clearly intended to silence truths and prevent journalists from carrying out their crucial work”.
The Pact for the Future fails to address the issues related to journalism and the global information crisis, says RSF
The Pact for the Future and its annex, the Global Digital Compact, adopted on September 22 by the United Nations General Assembly, fails to address the issues related to journalism and the global information crisis, according to Reporters Without Borders:
“Apart from a few references about the need to protect journalists in war zones and to combat misinformation, the UN member states are not sufficiently committed to the essential issue: guaranteeing everyone’s right to access diverse, reliable and independent information.”