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 help promote media freedom globally.

The UK is committed to defending media freedom and continues to raise it on the global stage. Working with the Media Freedom Coalition we have issued statements condemning attacks on media freedom in Myanmar, Hong Kong and most recently in Ukraine by Russia as well as the situation of journalists in Russia itself. We are continuing to support the work of the Coalition by funding a Secretariat for two years. We are providing support to journalists in Ukraine by extending our existing three-year, £9 million project to support media freedom in Ukraine with £1 million of urgent support. We have also provided an additional £250,000 to the UNESCO Global Media Defence Fund to support journalists in Ukraine.

More widely our £3 million commitment over 5 years to support the Global Media Defence Fund has supported over 3000 journalists, 170 lawyers and 65 civil society organisations worldwide through legal assistance and other support. The UK has also provided over £500 million in ODA to support the media and the free flow of information in the past 5 years. We used our G7 Presidency to secure strong commitments, including support to the Global Media Defence Fund, improve the effectiveness of our diplomatic networks in protecting journalists, and to address the financial crisis facing media across the world.