Here are three journalists talking about the problems reporters are facing in different places around the globe...
"I am sick and tired of being prosecuted all the time for the truth I tell" - Rafael Marques, Angolan investigative journalist.
"If you speak out against what happens, you either get detained for endless time or you get killed" - Abdullah Elshamy, Al-Jazeera Arabic journalist.
"What has impacted me most is the situation in Veracruz, because of how broken-down and abandoned I found my colleagues [there] to be" - Daniela Pastrana, Mexican journalist.
Their quotes appear on the website of the International Press Institute (IPI) as it launches a campaign, #WEWANTCHANGE, aimed at highlighting what it calls "the five greatest challenges to press freedom around the world."
They are: criminal defamation laws, the imprisonment of journalists, violent attacks on journalists, endemic impunity for such crimes, and a spate of emerging restrictions on digital journalism.
The #WEWANTCHANGE campaign is featuring the stories of five journalists from four continents, sharing the details of their struggle to carry out their work.
They either face obstacles created by the illegitimate use of laws and administrative restrictions or by the authorities' failure to provide journalists with a safe working environment.
Marques, for example, explains how he was arrested and convicted for defaming the Angolan president. He said: "I was not allowed to present any evidence in court."
And Elshamy tells of being imprisoned in Egypt, but even that regime cannot ignore international pressure.
Barbara Trionfi, IPI's press freedom manager, said: "#WEWANTCHANGE draws on the powerful voices of journalists who have accompanied IPI for many years in its fight for press freedom and freedom of expression worldwide.
"Their stories – the courage they have shown in the face of threats to their freedom and personal safety, supported by their passionate dedication to a journalism that pursues an important public function – show compelling evidence of how these obstacles to press freedom greatly hinder democratic practices."
For more information, contact IPI's Silvia Morales smorales@freemedia.at
Source: IPI
