On 16 November 2020, the Parliamentary Secretary of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica, took part in the online Ministerial Meeting of the Media Freedom Coalition, convened by Canada.
In her remarks to participants at the meeting, Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica underlined that in current times of global crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic it is especially important to be speaking about the safety of journalists. Latvia remains convinced, said the Parliamentary Secretary, that independent, high quality journalism is the best instrument to address misleading information on the spread of COVID-19. The member countries must work together to promote freedom of the press and the highest ethics and standards of the press, the protection of journalists and other staff of the mass media, as well as to promote media literacy among the public, trust and confidence in science, facts and the public authorities and international institutions.
Zanda Kalniņa-Lukaševica noted that the strength of the Media Freedom Coalition lies in its ability to respond in a rapid and decisive manner to acute threats to media freedom, and to the safety, health and even the lives of individual journalists. Latvia would like to draw the attention of those present, as a matter of urgency, to the dramatic situation with the civil society and journalists’ safety in Belarus. She called on all the members of the Media Freedom Coalition to seek ways of providing effective and immediate assistance to Belarusian independent journalists, who have been paying such a high price for their courage in telling the truth about what has happened during and after the presidential elections in Belarus.
Background information
The Ministerial Meeting is part of the Global Conference for Media Freedom. This year’s theme of the conference is Media Freedom and COVID-19, and it brings together a wide range of representatives of the public and non-governmental sector, including journalists and journalists’ associations, as well as international organisations protecting journalists’ rights.
The Media Freedom Coalition was inaugurated during the Global Conference for Media Freedom in London on 1 July 2019. It is a partnership of countries committed to strengthening international coordination and activities to promote media freedom and the safety of journalists through both a discussion at the highest political level and undertaking various long-term tasks at the expert level. Latvia is one of the members of the Coalition and working at its Executive Group. In total, 40 countries have already joined the Coalition.