The United Nations ironically censored an event marking World 'Press Freedom' Day.
A U.N. panel discussion on international media freedom and fake news was suddenly postponed because one of the presenters was going to mention by name countries that jail journalists.
Robert Mahoney, deputy executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists commented:
So we have a discussion in the U.N. about battling censorship, being censored, that's quite ironic, he said. I would call on us all here present to resist the politicization -- the increasing politicization of U.N. agencies whose mission is to
defend press freedom.
Alan Miller, founder of the News Literacy Project said in a statement that the panel was postponed after his organization refused a request from the UN's Alliance of Civilizations group to remove references from a video it wanted to present to
several countries that restrict press freedom including Turkey, Mexico, Egypt, Russia and Pakistan. Miller said:
I could not permit this censorship of our presentation due to the stated concern that it would offend one or more countries engaged in repression and violence against journalists, adding that the video has since been posted
on the project's website.
Nihal Saad, from Egypt, spokesperson for the Alliance of Civilizations, spouted:
The alliance asked the group to either make a comprehensive presentation of all countries where press freedom is limited, or to remove reference to specific countries that had been singled out in their report, to ensure objectivity and a more
comprehensive presentation.
