Declaration of london

We inhabit one world, a world whose very survival depends more than ever on mutual understanding. This mutual understanding cannot exist without a free press ensuring a free flow of information between us all. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms the right of all men and women to freedom of opinion and expression, and the freedom “to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers.” Yet worldwide, these freedoms are being threatened by censorship, some of it crude and naked, some of it clothed in other guises, but all of it directed to the same ends -- restriction of the public’s right to knowledge of the public business, denial of the public’s right to be fully informed of all that affects their lives and their future.

We of the print, broadcast and electronic media believe that our primary responsibility is to our readers, our listeners and our viewers, and that our obligation is to inform them to the best of our professional ability. Thus it is to challenge those who would put fetters on the free flow of news in word and image that we reporters, photographers, editors, publishers and broadcasters from 34 countries throughout the world have gathered in London, 16-18 January 1987, for the first international conference convoked specifically to combat censorship. We believe that where censorship exists it must be contested, and where censorship would be instituted it must be countered, by our concerted efforts.

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The price of press freedom is not cheap, and we pay tribute to those of our profession who have taken great personal risks to battle censorship at first hand. Some have been silenced, some have triumphed in the end. Others have been driven underground, to continue publishing or broadcasting despite the peril to their lives or livelihood. But all of them shame the censors and, by their courage, put us in their debt.

Journalism has always been a hazardous profession. And in this age of violence, the press has not been spared from terrorist bombs or bullets. This conference, however, has attested to a more ominous trend: the growing use of brute force by government powers, criminal forces and other interests seeking to intimidate the news media. We condemn the many incidents presented here of our colleagues being killed, assaulted, jailed or otherwise harassed in pursuit of their journalistic duties, and we find particularly abhorrent the current practice of taking journalists hostage.

We are disturbed also by the proliferation of press controls which equate with censorship in all but name. In this respect, no government, however democratic, is entirely beyond reproach. While direct pre-publication or pre-broadcast censorship remains limited, indirect censorship flourishes worldwide. The menace of official reprisals under national security laws or punitive press codes engenders a climate of fear in which journalists practice self-censorship. Implicit threats to withdraw publishing or broadcasting rights serve to restrain the independent news media. The same is accomplished in the case of individual journalists through government licensing or compulsory membership in government-sanctioned professional organizations. Economic and other pressures, including government controls on press telecommunications facilities or on the production or distribution of newsprint, and in allocations of government advertising or foreign exchange for the import of printing or broadcasting equipment are similarly effective in muting voices that those in authority do not wish to be heard.

These curbs on the domestic news media are matched by the obstacles erected by many countries to international press coverage, such as the exclusion of foreign journalists, restrictive documentation procedures and limitations on travel or access to news sources. Equally repugnant is the censorship of information emanating from outside the country, by the complete or partial banning of foreign news services, newspapers or magazines, the excision of offending articles or pictures in these publications, the jamming or proscribing of foreign broadcast transmissions.

National security and the needs of public order and national development are frequently invoked in justification for restraints on the free flow of information. Journalists have no wish to see their nation’s safety endangered. But we have been witness too often to official secrecy or disinformation being used to hide official embarrassment or corruption if not worse, and the similar use of other pretexts to stifle legitimate public debate.

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In calling for press freedom throughout the world, we of the news media believe that this freedom begins at home, and that the flow of news across national frontiers cannot be free if the flow of news within those frontiers is not free. Nor can there be any “national sovereignty” over news and opinion. We believe therefore that it is time to enunciate basic principles that should apply in maintaining a universal, free and uncensored flow of information:

• Censorship, direct or indirect, is unacceptable; thus laws and practices restricting the right of the news media freely to gather and distribute information must be abolished, and government authorities, national or local, must not interfere with the content of print or broadcast news, or restrict access to any news source.
• Independent news media, both print and broadcast, must be allowed to emerge and operate freely in all countries.
• There must be no discrimination by governments in their treatment, economic or otherwise, of the news media within a country. In those countries where government media also exist, the independent media must have the same free access as the official media have to all material and facilities necessary to their publishing or broadcasting operations.
• Government media must enjoy editorial independence and be open to a diversity of viewpoints. This should be affirmed in both law and practice.
• There should be unrestricted access by the print and broadcast media within a country to outside news and information services, and the public should enjoy similar freedom to receive foreign publications and foreign broadcasts without interference.
• National frontiers must be open to foreign journalists. Quotas must not apply, and applications for visas, press credentials and other documentation requisite for their work should be approved promptly. Foreign journalists should be allowed to travel freely within a country and have access to both official and unofficial news sources, and be allowed to import and export freely all necessary professional materials and equipment.
• Legal, technical and tariff practices by communications authorities which inhibit the distribution of news and restrict the flow of information are condemned.
• Restrictions on the free entry to the field of journalism or over its practice, through licensing or other certification procedures, must be eliminated.
• Journalists, like all citizens, must be secure in their persons and be given full protection of law. Journalists working in war zones are recognized as civilians enjoying all rights and immunities accorded to other civilians.

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In a world that is becoming increasingly one through new communications technologies, press freedom is indivisible. When censorship applies anywhere, it restricts access of the public everywhere to full knowledge of events. We intend by this meeting to help create an atmosphere in which censorship is recognized for what it is -- a denial of human rights. From the Declaration of London, we shall move forward to joint action:

First, in continuing to protest and publicize abuses against press freedom. This makes it clear to the world what others would hide, and has proven helpful in aiding journalists in difficulty.

Second, in intensifying and better coordinating the fight against censorship, we urge priority consideration for the following suggestions for joint action developed at this conference:

• Creation of a “fund against censorship” to support legal challenges to censorship measures and to other abuses of press freedom. To support these challenges, lists could be compiled of lawyers experienced in handling litigation involving the news media.
• Establishment of a “censorship hot line” as a clearing house for complaints by journalists subjected to direct or indirect censorship. This contact mechanism could be used by them in seeking assistance and advice, and would help in focusing international publicity on the abuses to which they have been subjected.
• Production, on a periodic and professional basis, of public service advertisements which the print and broadcast media could use, spotlighting particularly severe or striking examples of news censorship, or other abuses against press freedom.
• Organization of an “early warning system” to provide information on restrictive press laws, regulations or other measures being prepared or proposed, in order that international attention be brought to bear in time to oppose their adoption.
• Dispatch of journalistic missions to regions where official suppression of the news is especially severe, in order to investigate fully those conditions or events which the censors would conceal.

Only through the fullest commitment to a free and unrestricted flow of news gathered by free and independent journalists will we overcome those seeking to blind the world to what is happening in it. We pledge ourselves to renew this effort.

London Participants

Registered as participants in “Voices of Freedom ‘87” were: