WAN Conference: Newspapers Attack Un Human Rights Council

The World Association of Newspapers and World Editors Forum today condemned the UN Human Rights Council for its "repeated efforts to undermine freedom of expression".

WAN accused the UN council of undermining freedom of expression at the request of autocratic governments in the name of protecting religious sensibilities in a resolution issued at the newspaper industry body's 2008 congress in Gothenburg, Sweden.

"The WAN board is concerned at what appears to be the emergence of a negative trend against freedom of expression in the UN Human Rights Council," the resolution said.

WAN highlighted a UNHRC resolution sponsored by Pakistan and an Islamic organization last year that it claimed opened the door to the restrictions of freedom of expression by governments.

This year the UNHRC also approved a resolution from the Organization of the Islamic Conference that requiring the council's investigator to report instances where an "abuse" of the right to freedom of expression constitutes an act of racial or religious discrimination.

The organization, which represents 18,000 newspapers worldwide, called on the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, "to ensure that international standards of freedom of expression and fully supported by the UN Human Rights Council and not undermined by it".

WAN and WEF issued six other resolutions today. They condemned widespread press freedom violations during the recent presidential elections in Zimbabwe; invited the Russian president, Dmitry Medvedev, to promote freedom of the press in Russia; and appealed to African leaders to abolish libel and criminal defamation laws.

The two bodies also called on Chinese authorities to release all imprisoned journalists and cyber reporters ahead of the upcoming Olympic Games; condemned the continued imprisonment of 14 journalists in Eritrea; and expressed deep concern over the growing tendency of sports organizations to restrict press coverage of their events, both in print and digitally.

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