Today is World Press Freedom Day, and this year will be the 25th anniversary of the proclamation of this world day on 03 May by the United Nations General Assembly. To mark the day, the Gulf Centre for Human Rights (GCHR) is launching its new website at www.gc4hr.org, which it hopes will be available everywhere. The site is currently banned in the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia.

The theme of the day this year is “Keeping Power in Check: Media, Justice and the Rule of Law,” which UNESCO is marking during its celebrations in Ghana. The laureate of the 2018 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize is jailed Egyptian photojournalist Mahmoud Abu Zeid, known as “Shawkan“.

Follow UNESCO’s campaign for #WPFD2018 and the 25Secondsfor#PressFreedom campaign.

GCHR also takes this opportunity to ask each and every one of us, wherever we may be and whatever our business is, to think about the value freedom of expression brings to our societies.

It is also an opportunity to assess the state of press freedom within the countries in which GCHR is actively defending freedom of expression, where there are few independent media and human rights defenders must often play the role that journalists do to expose human rights violations. We also pay tribute to journalists and online activists who faced hardship or lost their lives in the course of their duty, including Omani Internet activist Hassan Al-Basham who died suddenly on 28 April 2018 due to untreated health conditions while serving a three-year sentence.

Media and access to information are an important part of the work of GCHR. Legislation and decisions taken by governments should be designed to protect the full enjoyment of the right to freedom of expression and independence of media; but sadly what is happening in most of the dozen countries in which GCHR is active is a systemised degradation of these public liberties and rights.

In recent months, there have been new laws (in Bahrain, Kuwait and Syria for example) that are tailored to criminalises online expression – including reporting being done in a responsible and ethical manner which does not fit the government agenda. We have witnessed the shrinking of civic space to the point of closing in the face of journalists, online bloggers and human rights defenders.  

We believe that freedom of expression is a fundamental basis for building democracy. It allows people to express their legitimate views freely and without fear of retaliation. The arrival of new social media platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter, has greatly contributed to free expression, especially in our region, where independent media have been shut down in 2017 (such as “Al-Wasat” in Bahrain and “Azamn” in Oman.)

Governments are monitoring social media and detaining online reporters and activists under the pretext of fighting terrorism and preserving public order. Human rights defenders and journalists are facing long prison sentences because they expressed their peaceful opinions or criticised government policies. They include GCHR’s Founding Directors Abdulhadi Al-Khawaja and Nabeel Rajab, imprisoned respectively for life and seven years in Bahrain, and GCHR’s Advisory Board member Ahmed Mansoor, detained arbitrarily for over a year in the UAE, likely for his online activity and comments and on social media.

On World Press Freedom Day, GCHR Executive Director Khalid Ibrahim, says, “Still, we have hope and we will celebrate this occasion even if governments increase their practices to hinder the enjoyment of freedom of expression. We remind these governments that healthy and strong governance starts from the full enjoyment of human rights and access to the right of free speech, which can counterbalance social injustice and public unrest while preserving human dignity.”

Please join GCHR by visiting our new website at www.gc4hr.org and on social media @GulfCentre4HR and https://www.facebook.com/gc4hr/