In the News May 3

World Press Freedom Day

Freedom of Expression – a Human Right

The fundamental human right to Freedom of Expression is enshrined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights:

“Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.”

The webpage of the United Nations website on World Press Freedom Day explains: “Media freedom and access to information feed into the wider development objective of empowering people. Empowerment is a multi-dimensional social and political process that helps people gain control over their own lives. This can only be achieved through access to accurate, fair and unbiased information, representing a plurality of opinions, and the means to actively communicate vertically and horizontally, thereby participating in the active life of the community.”

It then says:

“However, in order to make freedom of expression a reality, there must be:

– a legal and regulatory environment that allows for an open and pluralistic media sector to emerge;

– a political will to support the sector and rule of law to protect it;

– laws ensuring access to information, especially information in the public domain; and

– the necessary media literacy skills among news consumers to critically analyze and synthesize the information they receive to use it in their daily lives and to hold the media accountable for its actions.”

This is where difficulties lie when governments which serve narrow private interests pass laws and/or adopt regulations which define terms in a self-serving way without the consent of the people they claim to govern. This would include concepts such as “open and pluralistic media sector” or what it means to make sure “news consumers” have “the necessary media literacy skills to critically analyze and synthesize the information they receive to use it in their daily lives and to hold the media accountable for its actions.”

How do citizens and residents of this country do this? The government is presently passing all kinds of laws which are said to protect Canadians from hate-mongering or to encourage what is called “Canadian content,” but there is a lot of opposition to how the government defines such things. In the end, what is revealed is that it is narrow, private, mostly foreign, interests which are pushing war-mongering, hate-mongering and disinformation, along with the incitement of divisive politics which undermine the human right to be, for which the human rights to speak and express oneself freely are essential.

The government seems to be responding by avoiding changing laws or creating new laws where possible. Instead, it is restructuring “regulatory frameworks” which means the matters fall under ministerial prerogative powers.

The UN explanation of freedom of expression continues:

“These elements, along with media professionals adhering to the highest ethical and professional standards designed by practitioners, serve as the fundamental infrastructure on which freedom of expression can prevail. On this basis media serves as a watchdog, civil society engages with authorities and decision-makers, information flows through and between communities.”

Once media are not independent of the state and narrow private interests, previous notions of “highest ethical and professional standards” no longer exist. This can be due to how they are funded and the strings attached to funding or because of threats if they cover expression not aligned with what the government calls “Canadian values” or which private interests deem serves their profiteering aims. The pressure on journalists whose striving is to be professional and uphold “the highest ethical and professional standards” is very great at this time and many of the younger generation are never even taught what these are. On the contrary, they are put into a situation in which they are supposed to compete for jobs in conditions where freedom of expression no longer exists.

On this occasion, we salute all those who are speaking out in their own name, on the basis of working out together with their peers how to serve interests which uphold the rights of all within any given situation and what that means. Only in this way can the aims of journalism be met to inform people, enlighten them and enable them to critically analyze and draw warranted conclusions. We specifically salute the work undertaken by the Marxist-Leninist Party of Canada to build the instruments for the party and non-party press and organize groups of writers and disseminators amongst the working class and people to achieve these aims.

TML Daily, posted May 3, 2022.