Commonwealth Meeting and the Philippines

Andrew Jones Excerpts

Monday 18th November 2013 Commons Chamber

[The Prime Minister]

I would be interested to hear about that idea. As my hon. Friend knows, we have emergency capabilities that can be sent out of the country very rapidly, but there is always room to see whether we can improve such an issue, either at a British level or by doing things with partners.

[Andrew Jones (Harrogate and Knaresborough) (Con)]

Amnesty International has welcomed the Prime Minister’s call for

“genuine freedom of expression and…an end to the intimidation of journalists”.

Does my right hon. Friend think that it would have been as easy to speak up for the freedom of the Sri Lankan press had he stayed in London?

[The Prime Minister]

I am grateful to my hon. Friend for what he says. Being able to take journalists to the north of the country, particularly to the Uthayan newspaper, so many of whose journalists have been injured or killed in the course of their work, was a very powerful way of drawing attention to the importance of a free press and of freedom from intimidation.