By Canadian Press

Cotler, global lawyers call for charter on media protection during COVID-19 backslide

Nov 16, 2020 | 8:55 AM

OTTAWA — A coalition of international lawyers, led by a former Canadian attorney general, is calling for a new global charter to protect the rights of imprisoned journalists in an increasingly hostile world.

Irwin Cotler, the former Liberal justice minister and international human rights lawyer, made the recommendation in a report he authored for a coalition of independent international legal experts.

The report is being released today at an international conference on media freedom co-hosted by Canada and Botswana.

The new charter would upgrade legal obligations on a country that arbitrarily imprisons a journalist and impose new legal duties on the home country of a journalist that has been rounded up.

Cotler says the new measures are needed because the current international laws designed to protect the diplomatic access to people imprisoned in foreign countries are not adequate.

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Cotler and Amal Clooney, an international human rights lawyer who has represented imprisoned journalists, say the COVID-19 pandemic has emboldened authoritarian governments and created new risks to journalists working internationally.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 16, 2020.

The Canadian Press