Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee for the General Assembly

By ANA MARIA VASCONEZ, THE GUARDIAN

Ireland’s stance on the freedom and protection of journalism, and the implementation of education for young journalists.

The delegate of Ireland, shares the delegation's opinion on Journalistic liberties, a topic which concerns The Guardian

The job of a journalist is a difficult one. One has to meet deadlines, run from press conferences to the scene of news, compose and edit articles. But what about the security and protection of the freedom of the media?

The delegation of Ireland for SOCHUM is drafting and supporting a comprehensive resolution within their committee that involves the most prime protection for journalistic freedom. Resolution 1. 1 and 1.2 are merging together to better analyse the amendments on protection and the identification of journalists. The Guardian inquired this delegation on the topics that most stand out on this working resolution. One of the most interesting things that we have found out is that this working resolution includes blue badge identification for every journalist covering any type of story on foreign soil. The Non-Governmental Organisations and Inter-Governmental Organisations are working hard to come up with elaborate programmes to protect the lives and the freedom of the journalists. When the reporting of journalists is controversial and/or involves risking the lives of the people doing the reporting, the issue of personal security becomes an ethical one. This resolution resolves to work arduously with NGOs and IGOs to determine guidelines for journalists in order to keep them safe.

When doing heavy reporting, journalists should always be aware of where, what and when they are reporting.  The issue of a nation’s sovereignty is also one of concern when a nation is going through turmoil, especially one that attracts international media. Namely, the information being shared could infringe upon the nations sovereignty. This is the main reason this draft has become so strong within the committee. It also brings a concise frame on education for young journalists: to educate them on the right way to report and how to stay safe when doing reporting. The Non-Governmental Organistions that have worked with various nations that have created this draft, just to name a few, are as follows: Freedom House, Amnesty International, amongst others.

Ireland is very confident that when media has liberties, such as safety and resources to report the news, the ways it implements programmes becomes easier.

 

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

You may use these HTML tags and attributes: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <strike> <strong>