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OHCHR / BACHELET FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
STORY: OHCHR / BACHELET FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
TRT: 4:00
SOURCE: UNTV CH
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH /NATS
DATELINE: 1 SEPTEMBER 2020 GENEVA, SWITZERLAND
1.Pan left, camera screen to Bachelet going to podium
2.Zoom in, podium HC Michelle Bachelet.
3.SOUNDBITE (English) Michelle Bachelet UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“Freedom of the media is essential to enable democratic, free and participative societies. Journalism enriches our understanding of every kind of political, economic and social issue; delivers crucial – and, in the context of this pandemic, life-saving – information; and helps keep governance, at every level, transparent and accountable.”
4.Cutaway, photographer
5.SOUNDBITE (English) Michelle Bachelet UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“The safety of journalists, and their ability to pursue investigations and disseminate information without censorship or threats, is a key element for the realization of the Agenda for Sustainable Development. Indeed, the SDGs explicitly require fulfillment of the right to freedom of information and other fundamental human rights.”
6.Cutaway, cameramen
7.SOUNDBITE (English) Michelle Bachelet UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“But journalists around the world face censorship, surveillance, repression, intimidation and physical attacks. Often these appear to be perpetrated by organised crime, armed groups or other private actors, including businesses – but they may also be instigated or condoned by government officials.”
8.Cutaway, photographers
9.SOUNDBITE (English) Michelle Bachelet UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“Women journalists are often at greater risk of being targeted, including through threats of sexual violence and online hate campaigns. And these crimes against journalists, including cases of murder, are frequently addressed by inadequate investigations and prosecutions.”
10.Med shot, Room 20
11.SOUNDBITE (English) Michelle Bachelet UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“In many situations of armed conflict, the intentional targeting of journalists, by both States and armed groups, is growing increasingly alarming. As when journalists are targeted in the context of protests and criticism, these attacks are intended to silence all of civil society, and this is of deep concern.”
12.Med shot, Room 20
13.SOUNDBITE (English) Michelle Bachelet UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“Additionally, legislation, including on counter-terrorism, national security, lèse-majesté and sedition, as well as vague prohibitions on the dissemination of “falsehoods” and “fake news”, are being used in many parts of the world to deter and crack down on independent reporting.”
14.Cutaway, close up, typing on phone
15.SOUNDBITE (English) Michelle Bachelet UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“And in recent months, these trends of censorship; repression; threats and attacks; and impunity have been intensifying in the context of the global pandemic. In several countries, increasing politicisation of the pandemic, and efforts to blame its effects on political opponents, have led to threats, arrests and smear campaigns against journalists who maintain fact-based information about the spread of COVID-19 and the adequacy of measures to prevent it.”
16.Cutaway, close up, writting
17.SOUNDBITE (English) Michelle Bachelet UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“Some Governments appear to have seized on this public health crisis as an excuse for much wider – and unjustifiable – crackdowns on criticism and dissent. These measures include shutting down media offices, closing websites, Internet shutdowns and other forms of censorship, and the arbitrary arrest and detention of journalists in dangerous and crowded detention centres. These practices disproportionately restrict the enjoyment of freedom of the media and contravene international law.”
18.Close up, participant
19.SOUNDBITE (English) Michelle Bachelet UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“Access to accurate, timely and trustworthy information enables the public to act promptly, in line with health guidelines that they understand and agree with. It shapes institutions and policies that are responsive, responsible and evidence based. It fosters trust between the public and the authorities: censorship, after all, boils down to official mistrust of people's ability to make sound distinctions between what is true and what is fake.”
20.Various shots, Room 20.
At a side-event in Geneva for the UN General Assembly 2020, Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights made the following statement on the freedom of the press and freedom of expression.
SOUNDBITE (English) Michelle Bachelet UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“Freedom of the media is essential to enable democratic, free and participative societies. Journalism enriches our understanding of every kind of political, economic and social issue; delivers crucial – and, in the context of this pandemic, life-saving – information; and helps keep governance, at every level, transparent and accountable.”
SOUNDBITE (English) Michelle Bachelet UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“The safety of journalists, and their ability to pursue investigations and disseminate information without censorship or threats, is a key element for the realization of the Agenda for Sustainable Development. Indeed, the SDGs explicitly require fulfillment of the right to freedom of information and other fundamental human rights.”
SOUNDBITE (English) Michelle Bachelet UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“But journalists around the world face censorship, surveillance, repression, intimidation and physical attacks. Often these appear to be perpetrated by organised crime, armed groups or other private actors, including businesses – but they may also be instigated or condoned by government officials.”
SOUNDBITE (English) Michelle Bachelet UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“Women journalists are often at greater risk of being targeted, including through threats of sexual violence and online hate campaigns. And these crimes against journalists, including cases of murder, are frequently addressed by inadequate investigations and prosecutions.”
SOUNDBITE (English) Michelle Bachelet UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“In many situations of armed conflict, the intentional targeting of journalists, by both States and armed groups, is growing increasingly alarming. As when journalists are targeted in the context of protests and criticism, these attacks are intended to silence all of civil society, and this is of deep concern.”
SOUNDBITE (English) Michelle Bachelet UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“Additionally, legislation, including on counter-terrorism, national security, lèse-majesté and sedition, as well as vague prohibitions on the dissemination of “falsehoods” and “fake news”, are being used in many parts of the world to deter and crack down on independent reporting.”
SOUNDBITE (English) Michelle Bachelet UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“And in recent months, these trends of censorship; repression; threats and attacks; and impunity have been intensifying in the context of the global pandemic. In several countries, increasing politicisation of the pandemic, and efforts to blame its effects on political opponents, have led to threats, arrests and smear campaigns against journalists who maintain fact-based information about the spread of COVID-19 and the adequacy of measures to prevent it.”
SOUNDBITE (English) Michelle Bachelet UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“Some Governments appear to have seized on this public health crisis as an excuse for much wider – and unjustifiable – crackdowns on criticism and dissent. These measures include shutting down media offices, closing websites, Internet shutdowns and other forms of censorship, and the arbitrary arrest and detention of journalists in dangerous and crowded detention centres. These practices disproportionately restrict the enjoyment of freedom of the media and contravene international law.”
SOUNDBITE (English) Michelle Bachelet UN High Commissioner for Human Rights:
“Access to accurate, timely and trustworthy information enables the public to act promptly, in line with health guidelines that they understand and agree with. It shapes institutions and policies that are responsive, responsible and evidence-based. It fosters trust between the public and the authorities: censorship, after all, boils down to official mistrust of people's ability to make sound distinctions between what is true and what is fake.”
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