Defamation of Religion vs. Press Freedom | Jakarta | August 2010
THE CONTEST BETWEEN DEFAMATION OF RELIGION AND PRESS FREEDOM CONTINUES TO MAKE HEADLINES THE WORLD AROUND.
The United Nations has taken up this debate, and in November of 2008, the Human Rights Council working group passed a draft resolution calling on all countries to alter their legal and constitutional systems to prevent "defamation of religions." The resolution asserted, for example, that such protections are necessary because "Islam is frequently and wrongly associated with human rights violations and terrorism."
While we applaud the attention the UN is giving to religion, complete prohibitions on defamation of religion could have a chilling effect on free expression.
The Media Project will explore this issue in detail at our upcoming workshop "Defamation of Religion vs. Press Freedom" in Jakarta, Indonesia, from Monday, August 9th through Friday, August 13th.
Speakers and participants will be journalists and editors from all over the world, including the countries of Cameroon, Egypt, Nigeria, Sudan, China, US, India, Malaysia, Philippines and of course Indonesia. The goal of the workshop is to deepen journalists' knowledge of the topic and to educate one another based on participants' real-life experience.
Though the UN General Assembly passed the resolution with a vote of 85 to 50, with 42 abstaining, opposition to such non-binding resolutions in UN forums is growing.
Late in November 2009, more than 100 non-governmental organizations protested attempts by some governments to push through a United Nations resolution to protect religion from so called defamation. Groups such as UN Watch and the Anti-Defamation League warned that if the discussion leads to a binding UN resolution, it could give states more reasons to clamp down even further on human rights and freedom of expression.
Prior to the workshop in Indonesia, The Media Project asked participants to interview media and religious leaders in their local region Participants will report to the conference about local opinions on how a prohibition against “defamation of religion” should be implemented -- if at all -- in their society.
The conference participants will compile these firsthand reports and analyze how proposed legal actions could affect media freedom and religious freedom around the world. The data collected from the "front lines", including quotes from key leaders and summaries of the key issues, will make their way into news reports in Jakarta-based and international media, as well as upcoming features here at TheMediaProject.org.
[Photo of Jakarta at night by DJ Archuleta.]
