AKEL on World Press Freedom Day
3 May 2024, AKEL C.C. Press Office, Nicosia
This year’s World Press Freedom Day finds freedom of the press being tested in most countries of the world and hundreds of journalists around the world losing or risking their lives in the battle to uncover the truth and inform the public. In particular, media workers in the fields of war and conflict pay a heavy price. Almost a hundred journalists and workers have been killed in Gaza in recent months and are among the 34,000 killed in the ongoing genocide perpetrated by Israel, which is even banning the foreign press from entering Gaza and carrying out its work of informing world opinion.
At the same time, cases such as the ongoing prosecution of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange confirm the struggle that the defence of press freedom demands. Around the world, freedom and independence of the press is confronted with phenomena such as the interwoven interests of mass media owners with the economic and political establishment, the interference of ruling powers and employers in the work of journalists and the phenomenon of strategic lawsuits (SLAPPs) against journalists in order to silence and economically exhaust them.
At the same time, the generalised job insecurity intensifies the phenomenon of self-censorship, while the intensification of the pace of work in the field affects the quality of information work.
On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day AKEL expresses its solidarity with the campaign waged by the Cyprus Union of Journalists for the renewal and implementation of the collective agreement in the printed press, which has been inactive for 12 years due to the responsibility of the employers’ side, for the negotiation of collective agreements in the electronic and online press, for the payment of the Cost of Living Allowance to all journalists and for the achievement of all other demands of the sector for dignified working conditions in the media.
On the occasion of the World Press Freedom Day, AKEL reiterates its appreciation to our country’s journalists who serve their profession and mission, who work for the accurate and comprehensive briefing of citizens, who highlight the real problems of the people and exercise their role by scrutinizing ruling powers and economic interests.
03.05.2024
