Amal Clooney addresses Foreign Office ambassadors on defending journalists
Today (Tuesday 11 June) marks one month until Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt’s Global Conference for Media Freedom takes place in London.
Amal Clooney addresses Foreign Office Ambassadors on defending journalists
Special Envoy for Media Freedom Amal Clooney on Monday 10 June addressed Foreign Office ambassadors during the FCO’s annual Leadership Week to talk about her work defending journalists across the globe, and the importance of the FCO’s own efforts to defend media freedoms.
Ms. Clooney has been appointed to a High Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom - a group of the world’s top legal minds who will advise governments and others on legal measures that will allow journalists to do their jobs freely and hold those in power to account.
Ms. Clooney said:
The fight for media freedom is one of the key battles of our time. Journalists are under attack like never before, and we have reached the point where there are few places in the world where journalists are not threatened. There is much to be done, but the global decline in press freedom will not be reversed without real leadership. This campaign is the start of that fight.
Also in attendance at the event was the Minister for Human Rights, Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon. He addressed the Foreign Office’s network of Ambassadors and High Commissioners on his vision for improving media freedom across the globe.
Lord (Tariq) Ahmad of Wimbledon said:
2018 saw the murder of 99 journalists around the world. As an international community we have to wake up and take stronger action to protect media freedoms, and that’s exactly what our Global Conference for Media Freedom will do next month in London.
British Ambassadors and High Commissioners are on the frontline of the vital diplomacy that is required as we work to uncover those who deny and abuse the freedom of press, which threatens any open democratic society.