A craft to live for, not die for
by Reeta Sharma

THE 24th World Congress of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) took place in Seoul from June 11 to 16. This organization, devoted to the cause of journalism and journalists worldwide, was established in 1926 in Belgium, and at present has 4,50,000 members.

The IFJ has been consistently taking steps to defend the freedom of the Press and promote social justice through free and independent unions of journalists in various countries. It strongly supports human rights, democracy and pluralism and makes efforts to ensure the safety of journalists.

Attending this conference, turned out to be an educative experience for me. The IFJ in the past 75 years has doggedly fought battles with governments and publishers for upholding high journalistic standards. The democratically elected body of IFJ operates from Brussels and Sydney.

The IFJ has unfailingly stood against any kind of discrimination and suppression of political and cultural expression. It is IFJ’s objective to promote and maintain editorial independence. Any interference by the owners or the management of a media is viewed with serious concern and it supports the fight against it.

Besides, the IFJ has always supported journalists and their unions whenever they had to fight for their professional rights. It has also established an International Safety Fund (ISF) to provide aid to journalists in need. All policy decisions of the IFJ are taken at the World Congress, which is held every three years.

The 24th World Congress at Seoul turned out to be the largest gathering of the representatives ever. Of the assembled journalists, 40 per cent of them were women. This time there had been a special stress on their participation.

The congress, which is recognised as the supreme general body of the IFJ, carried amendments to the constitution, besides presenting various proposals. The outgoing executive committee, through its resolutions, pointed out that the work performed by the IFJ was gaining recognition in different regions of the world. It had, therefore, instructed its members that regional representation should be strengthened further. Other motions lay stress on globalisation and media, broadcasting and electronic journalism, rights of freelancers and writers and safety of journalists.

Various IFJ unions made a number of proposals. The Croatian union proposed freedom of media and rights of journalists, while the union of Peruvian journalists was concerned about the rising unemployment and social inequality in the world.

Again, it was the Peru Union of Journalists which proposed the motion regarding women journalists. It noted that most women in media were not part of the unions. It proposed that women in general, and women journalists in particular, should promote the values of trade unionism.

The present IFJ president is Christopher Warren and the secretary- general is Adien White. While Chris (as everybody called him) turned out to be a man of poise, handling every thing in a matter- of- fact manner, Adien was dynamic and agile. Chris, in his address, expressed pride over the fact that the IFJ was the only legitimate international organisation in the world of the working journalists. He also paid glowing tributes to the South Korean Journalists’ Union (JAK) for their bold struggle in defense of Press freedom and journalistic independence. He reiterated IFJ’s commitment to the principles of trade unionism, and human rights.

The congress also mourned the death of those journalists who were killed while performing their duties. In Colombia alone, in just one year, 16 journalists and 76 members of their unions had been found murdered or missing. As many as 140 journalists faced a similar fate in Latin America in 1999. Besides, 3,000 of them were arrested and 1500 were injured or tortured. In Ukraine, too, journalists have been disappearing. Responding to this brutal scenario faced by journalists, Chris said: "While we celebrate the spread of democracy, we need to recognise that such attacks on journalists have made the world a more dangerous place for journalists. We ought to campaign that journalism becomes a craft to live for, not one to die for." The IFJ is all set to come out soon with a book on journalists who have been killed.

Jean Claude Wolff, President of the ALJ, a union of journalists in Luxembourg, read a statement about one of his colleagues, Marc Thoma, who was sentenced 63 times for a quotation in a radio report. The West African Journalists Association also stated that journalism was still a risky profession in their part of the world. Many countries there still have media-stifling laws that were formulated during the colonial era. Ghana, Mali, Gambia, Sierra Leone, Nigeria, Liberia, Burkina Faso, etc.have yet to realise the real freedom of Press. Incarceration, abduction, high-handedness and even murder of journalists continue take place despite the Windhock Declaration on Press Freedom, which these countries signed 10 years ago in Namibia. In Burkina Faso, journalist Norbert Zongo was murdered by securitymen of the President because he was investigating a murder allegedly committed by the brother of the President.