Today, May 3, marks the 30th anniversary of the adoption by the United Nations General Assembly of a resolution declaring an International Press Freedom Day.
Journalists around the world celebrate this day every year as an occasion to remind governments of the need to respect their commitment to freedom of the press, and as a day for review and evaluation among media professionals on issues of press freedom and professional ethics, and adherence to the basic principles of press freedom all over the world.
On this occasion, the international affairs editor of the Libyan News Agency congratulated all Libyan journalists and colleagues of “Her Majesty” in brotherly and friendly countries around the world.
He said in a commentary that despite the passage of three decades since the adoption of this solemn declaration on May 3, 1993 under the slogan “Enabling the press and journalists to access information and freedom of expression”, the reality of the situation reveals that these aspirations are still relative in all countries. the world without exception.
The editor noted that despite the wide spread of digital technologies made possible by the information and communication revolution, the information flood from north to south still dominates the international media scene.
The editor added that the Libyan media scene is still in complete chaos due to the weakness of the state, political division, and the struggle for power and influence, not to mention the widespread spread of weapons, polarization operations, people-buying, and the suppression of freedoms.
He said that the Libyan News Agency, despite the crisis of power in the country and the widespread processes of polarization, its slogan, approach and editorial policy remained adherence to the principles and ethics of professional journalistic work, and it was able to maintain a large distance from the parties to the power struggle, and prevented the fragmentation of this media institution, the ancient patriotism, despite the lack of capabilities, scarcity of resources, and the ambiguity of the political scene in general.
The international affairs editor (LANA) called on the competent authorities in our country to keep abreast of local and international changes, ease the government’s grip on the media, and enact the necessary laws to upgrade the Libyan media scene and develop specialized colleges, again at the same time calling for Libyan journalists to unite and reject the state of polarization that the country is experiencing today, and renounce it and push the legislative authority to issue a new press law and participate in its drafting, and seriously strive to establish the General Syndicate of Journalists and the Libyan Press House and build clubs for Libyan journalists throughout Libya.
The editor emphasized that freedom of the press and expression remains a relative issue in the rest of the world, pointing out in this regard that the Russian-Ukrainian war once again revealed the falsity of the slogan of freedom of the press and expression, as international public opinion today is experiencing waves of misinformation and fabricated media pumping from the parties to this conflict between Russia on the one hand. Ukraine, supported by the European Union, the United States and NATO, on the other hand.
In this regard, the editor recalled that the United States and some Western countries harnessed all the American and international media to mislead the American and international public opinion during the Iraq war and pumped out thousands of media reports that became clear after the destruction of Iraq.
He also cited the dominance of the American authorities over the American media, despite freedom of expression and preventing it from publishing pictures of the victims of the September 11 attacks that targeted the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, while it publishes widely and without regard for the feelings of others and without ethical controls pictures of victims of wars and conflicts in the Arab region, Africa and Latin America. , indicating that the global classification of press freedom is often unfair and does not reflect reality due to the fact that the international organizations and bodies that supervise these classifications are under the influence of the political interests of major countries and influential lobbies.
At the end of his comment, the editor called for the need to purify the international media space from widespread misinformation operations to serve the interests of dominant international and regional powers and fanatical and extremist ideologies, pointing out that the information and communication revolution that produced the international digital space contributed to these misleading policies and to the spread of propaganda wars for governments to fuel conflicts and strife and consolidate interests dominant powers.
Source: Libyan News Agency