AKEL on World Press Freedom Day
AKEL C.C. Press Office, 3rd May 2021, Nicosia
On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, AKEL expresses its appreciation towards journalists in Cyprus, to the journalists who serve the mission of informing the people and exercising scrutiny over political and economic power, to those journalists that highlight the country’s real problems and offer a podium for all views to be expressed, who dare expose entanglement/interwoven interests and corruption.
Freedom of the press is a core element of a modern, free and democratic society. However, even in the most developed countries of the world, freedom of the press suffers from killings, attacks, threats and pressure exerted on journalists, but also from job insecurity that undermines journalist’s work. Freedom of the press is also harmed by the ownership over-concentration of the mass media and digital oligopoly, by the entanglement/interwoven interests of the owners of mass media with the economic-political establishment, phenomena that curb freedom and pluralism in the arena of information, but also affecting the quality of journalism.
AKEL has called and continues to call on the State to protect the sustainability of the press media, which cannot be guaranteed by the rules of the market, but also demands that the dignity of journalist’s labour status and all working people employed in the field of information should be safeguarded.
