Reporters Borders Quotes on Media & News (6 Quotes)

History is repeating itself because the calls for military protection for the state media were not heeded. Cte d'Ivoire's state media have again fallen into the hands of the proponents of violence, and no time should be lost in taking energetic measures. The installations of RTI and RCI should be made secure or, failing that, they should be taken off the air.

If nothing is done to ensure the press is free to do its work, these elections will take place in a climate of intimidation. If the government wants the world to say the elections were free, fair and transparent, it should heed our call for a change in attitude. The Media Centre recently set up to monitor and punish the foreign press is utterly illegitimate and should be disbanded.

We condemn the closure of a newspaper, which has only carried out its role of informing the public by dealing with a subject that is high on the news agenda around the world.

Journalism is based on a code of conduct and professional ethics that clearly exclude telephone espionage but the concept of express permission of the parties could be used unfairly against the media if, for example, a source later retracts.

As a matter of principle, the media should never be subject to constraint by the police or the courts, even when limited to a criminal investigation.

It is not our job to question a news media's internal decision to fire an employee, but if the management fails to defend one if its journalists when she is the target of threats and then fires her as a result of external political pressure, it speaks volumes about its concept of press freedom.