CPJ calls for global coalition against censorship

23 Feb 2012

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is calling for a global coalition against censorship at a time when repressive governments, "militants" and criminal groups around the world are controlling information to maintain their grip on power.

"There is a collective interest in ensuring that information flows freely...An attack on an Egyptian, Pakistani, or Mexican journalist inhibits the ability of people around the world to receive the information that journalist would have provided," CPJ executive director Joel Simon said in CPJ's annual report, Attacks on the Press, launched on 21 February. "A global coalition against censorship needs to unite behind a simple idea: censorship anywhere affects people everywhere," he added.

Simon points to the lesson that repressive governments may have learned from the Arab Spring uprisings: "that maintaining a viable censorship regime is even more urgent in the Information Age. After all, once control of information slips from their hands, it is difficult to retain power," said Simon.

Simon uses Egypt as an example, where the government unplugged the Internet, shut down satellite channels and targeted foreign correspondents, but protesters were able to keep communication channels open and win international support for their cause.

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