Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs, what steps he is taking to help promote the merits of freedom of the press overseas.

The British Government is fully committed to promote media freedom and protect journalists. We believe that media freedom is vital to functioning democracies and that journalists must be able to investigate and report without undue interference.

Alongside Canada, we hosted the first Global Conference on Media Freedom in London in July 2019. The former Foreign Secretary announced an international campaign to end the climate of impunity and mobilise a consensus behind the protection of journalists worldwide.

Our media freedom campaign initiatives are designed to add value to, and reinforce, existing mechanisms, including those of the UN and other international organisations. We have convened a Media Freedom Coalition: a partnership of 35 countries working to hold abusers to account. The first official level meeting of the Coalition took place in Geneva on 29 January. Working closely with United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, the UK has established a £3m Global Media Defence Fund to help protect journalists around the world. The UK works with media organisations and civil society around the world to deliver projects to protect and enable journalists. And, at the request of the UK and Canadian Governments, Lord Neuberger and Amal Clooney have convened an independent High Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom. On the 13 February, the Panel released the first in a series of advisory reports that will provide recommendations to the Governments on how they can increase protections for the media.

UK Ministers and senior officials regularly raise concerns in multilateral fora, such as the UN Human Rights Council and the Council of Europe, about countries that do not comply with their human rights obligations. In addition, we use the UK's extensive diplomatic network to raise concerns about media freedom bilaterally. This includes individual cases where journalists and other media professionals are persecuted or attacked; or where governments are introducing laws and policies that could lead to restrictive practices.