Speech

Ambassador to Turkmenistan supports the right to write

Her Majesty´s Ambassador to Turkmenistan, Thorda Abbott-Watt makes a statement to mark the start of the Global Conference for Media Freedom in London.

• From: Foreign & Commonwealth Office and Miss Thorda Abbott-Watt
• Published: 10 July 2019

This was published under the 2016 to 2019 May Conservative government

• Location: Ashgabat, Turkmenistan
• Delivered on: 10 July 2019 (Transcript of the speech, exactly as it was delivered)

Media freedom matters – the right to be heard, the right of journalists to impart information without interference, the right for people to access words. It is a basic provision of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. It is a foundation stone of democracy. It goes hand in hand with prosperity, education and social development.

Today Britain and Canada will jointly host a Global Conference for Media Freedom in London. Here in Ashgabat our thoughts will be with those Turkmen journalists, both in Turkmenistan itself and outside the country, who write with honesty and integrity about things which matter to them and to Turkmenistan.

Thorda Abbott-Watt

HM Ambassador to Turkmenistan

British Embassy, Ashgabat

Published 10 July 2019