Asked by: John Whittingdale (Conservative - Maldon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
What diplomatic steps her Department is taking to promote media freedom globally.
Answered by Vicky Ford
The UK is a longstanding champion of media freedom globally. We co-founded the Media Freedom Coalition, and continue to work with them, and partners to address the deteriorating global media freedom situation. We commend all journalists for their bravery in these unprecedented times.
In Ukraine we are working with partners to support journalists, providing direct support to enable independent journalism to continue including for example security advice and facilitation of international monitoring (including of potential war crimes).
Asked by: John Whittingdale (Conservative - Maldon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps she is taking to promote global media freedom.
Answered by Vicky Ford
We commend all journalists in Ukraine for their bravery in these unprecedented times and condemn the censorship of independent journalists in Russia.
The UK is a longstanding champion of media freedom globally, which is vital to realising the network of liberty. My noble friend, Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon, led the UK delegation at the annual Global Conference for Media Freedom in Estonia last month.
We co-founded the Media Freedom Coalition, and continue to work with them, and partners to address the deteriorating global media freedom situation.
Asked by: John Whittingdale (Conservative - Maldon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
What diplomatic steps he is taking to help protect the rights and freedoms of journalists throughout the world.
Answered by Mark Field
The UK is committed to the protection of journalists. We have launched a campaign to shine a global spotlight on the subject of media freedom and increase the costs to those who abuse it. This includes liaising with multilateral, bilateral and civil society partners to explore the effectiveness of the protection mechanisms and funds that already exist, and consider where we can best add value.
Asked by: John Whittingdale (Conservative - Maldon)
Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, how much the Government plans to provide to Ukraine through the Conflict, Stability and Security Fund under each category of expenditure.
Answered by David Lidington
The House will be informed of Conflict, Stability and Security Fund (CSSF) allocations for 2015/16 in due course, via a Written Ministerial Statement.
This financial year, the CSSF’s precursor, the Conflict Pool, provided £9m in support to Ukraine on a range of programmes which included gifting non-lethal equipment to the Ukrainian Armed Forces, treating wounded Ukrainian servicemen, supporting the Organisation for Security and Co-oporation in Europe (OSCE) Special Monitoring Mission, building strategic communications capacity, as well as providing peace building activities.