30 September 2014

The organization that promotes press freedom worldwide asks for the free flow of information and the right of journalists to do their jobs in the digital age

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) nonprofit organization based in New York since 1981, that promotes press freedom and defends the rights of journalists, has launched a campaign called “Right to report”. Ossigeno per l’Informazione supports it togheter with other associations.

The initiative was created to ask the White House to respect journalists’ right to gather and report the news in the digital age.

Revelations about surveillance, intimidation, and exploitation of the press – as stated on CPJ website – have raised unsettling questions about whether the U.S. and other Western democracies risk undermining journalists’ ability to report in the digital age.

CPJ also refers to documents leaked by Edward Snowden, former technician of the CIA who has publicly revealed secret details of various programs of mass surveillance of American government and the British one.

The Committee complains that when journalists believe they might be targeted by government hackers, pulled into a criminal investigation, or searched and interrogated about their work at the U.S. border, their ability to inform the public erodes. If journalists cannot communicate in confidence with sources, they cannot do their jobs.

The CPJ campaign asks for the protection of the free flow of information and the right of journalists to do their jobs in the digital age.

There are three requirements that the Committee asks to the Obama Administration: issue a presidential policy directive prohibiting the hacking and surveillance of journalists and media organizations, limit aggressive prosecutions that ensnare journalists and intimidate whistleblowers, Prevent the harassment of journalists at the U.S. border.

We want the U.S. to have an unblemished press freedom record so that it can more effectively advocate for the rights of journalists in countries such as Turkey, Russia, and China – as written by executive director of the CPJ Joel Simon-. In these places, repression is growing and the stakes are enormous. The U.S. needs to speak out effectively in support of press freedom and it can do so only if its own record is not consistently challenged.