New York: A coalition of more than a dozen global news organizations, including The Associated Press, The Financial Times and Reuters, will spotlight the world’s most threatened journalists in a new freedom of speech initiative, the group announced Friday in New York.
Members of the One Free Press Coalition will publish on their platforms each month a ‘10 Most Urgent’ list of journalists who have been jailed, threatened or attacked for their work.
The group’s mission is to use the voices of its members to ‘stand up for journalists under attack for pursuing the truth’, the organization said.
Among the first group of journalists the coalition is spotlighting are the late Washington Post columnist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed in October 2018 by Saudi agents at the country’s consulate in Istanbul, and Maria Ressa, the founder of the news site Rappler who has faced arrest and legal threats in the Philippines.
Other coalition members include EURACTIV, Forbes, HuffPost, Le Temps, Sueddeutsche Zeitung, Time, Wired and Yahoo News.
The group’s reach, including online and on social media, will allow it to signal its solidarity for journalism colleagues and simultaneously tell those who threaten free speech that they are being watched, said Randall Lane, Forbes’ chief content officer who championed the concept of the coalition at a meeting of the International Media Council at the World Economic Forum.
Other coalition partners include the Committee to Protect Journalists and the International Women’s Media Foundation.
AP