World's Newspapers Open Meeting With Call for Press Freedom

The World Newspaper Congress and World Editors Forum opened Monday with a
call for more press freedom at a time when journalists are being killed
and jailed in great numbers and the press in many countries is under
attack.

"I am sad and outraged to have to report that 1999 was a particularly
sinister year for attacks on the press. No less than 71 journalists and
other media employees lost their lives on duty, in many cases in
cold-blooded assassination, several of them here in Latin America," said
Bengt Braun, President of the World Association of Newspapers, in opening
remarks to the nearly 1,400 newspaper publishers, senior executives,
editors and their guests attending the global press meetings in Rio de
Janeiro, Brazil.

"And the killing goes on: 9 Latin American journalists have been murdered
in 2000, in Colombia, Guatemala, Haiti, Mexico and Uruguay, bringing the
death toll already this year to the total for 1999 on this continent," he
said. "These savage killings were, in almost all cases, related to the
investigations being carried out by reporters into crime and corruption."

"Murder is the ultimate form of censorship," he said. "But at the same
time, WAN and other press groups chronicle, almost on a daily basis,
hundreds of cases where journalists have been beaten, shot at, arrested
and tortured and where newspapers and magazines are censored, suspended
and banned. Today, there are at least 124 journalists serving long prison
sentences in 24 countries."

Mr Braun said it was the responsibility of WAN, as the global
organisation of the world's newspapers, "to relentlessly expose and
protest the repression of the basic human right to freedom of
information. I can assure you that this daily work does much more than
merely satisfy our consciences as colleagues of the persecuted and
repressed. We see numerous cases where journalists are freed from jail,
where attacks on the press are investigated, where repressive legislation
is reconsidered or overturned, as a result of the pressure and publicity
we and other groups give to these violations."

But public pressure alone is not enough, said Mr Braun. "We have always
realised that simply overturning press freedom restrictions, however
important that objective, is very rarely enough to ensure the development
of a free and independent press. Freedom of the press demands not only
that journalists be able to exercise their profession without constraint.
It also requires the existence of well-managed, economically viable
newspaper enterprises operating within effective infrastructures."

"That is why WAN continues to devote a growing amount of time and
resources in training, assistance and infrastructure-building projects to
help independent newspapers survive and prosper economically," he said.
"All our activities, not only in developing countries but in the
developed world, are designed to help newspapers become profitable. This
is a fundamental condition to their freedom and their independence."

It was in society's best interests to create such conditions, he said.
"The newspaper is irreplaceable in maintaining the daily habit of
reading. It also, in an increasingly fragmented society, is essential in
helping build new communities. The newspaper, through its organisation of
knowledge, its classification and presentation of information, helps
citizens comprehend what is going on around them."

But this role is also facing challenges, even in developed democracies,
he said. "The publishing tradition itself is threatened by actors who
either lack it or do not understand it. They go after revenues of
newspapers but have no ambition that newspapers should play a social
role. Electricity companies, telecom operators, and groups from entirely
different businesses with no publishing tradition are now vying for their
places in the media markets and attempting to buy content rather than
building content from a publishing ambition. In a free market, this is
entirely legitimate, but it increases the demand on newspapers which are
built on content, to remain profitable and defend their interest and
place in democratic society."

The 53rd World Newspaper Congress, 7th World Editors Forum and Info
Services Expo 2000 continues through Wednesday.

The Paris-based WAN defends and promotes press freedom world-wide. It
represents 17,000 newspapers; its membership includes 65 national
newspaper associations, individual newspaper executives in 93 countries,
17 news agencies and seven regional and world-wide press groups.

Inquiries to: Larry Kilman, Director of Communications, WAN, 25 rue d'Astorg, 75008 Paris France. Tel: +33 1 47 42 85 00. Fax: +33 1 47 42 49 48. Mobile: +33 6 10 28 97 36. E-mail: lkilman@wan.asso.fr

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