LONDON: Prominent human rights lawyer Amal Clooney slammed President Donald Trum for ‘vilifying’ media, making it ‘vulnerable to abuse’.
Clooney, the British government’s envoy on media freedom, said in a speech at the Global Conference for Media Freedom in London on Wednesday that “journalists are under attack like never before,” said Clooney, who is married to the actor George Clooney.
Clooney also mentioned India for having the highest murder rates. “India and Brazil, two of the largest world democracies have some of the highest murder rates. The vast majority of these murders go unpunished.
She also cited the example of Jamal Khashoggi’s murder to slam world leaders for what she described as their “collective shrug” over the slaying of Washington Post columnist in 2018.
Clooney went further, suggesting that Trump’s rhetoric risked endangering journalists worldwide.
She said: “This decline in media freedom does not only mean that journalists have fewer rights, it means we all have. Because as James Madison, one of America’s founding fathers, warned us more than 200 years ago: the right to a free press is ‘the only effectual guardian of every other right’.
“And today the country of James Madison has a leader who vilifies the media, making honest journalists all over the world more vulnerable to abuse. With authoritarianism, isolationism and nationalism gaining ground, the relevance of international institutions and respect for international norms are seriously in question.”
[source_without_link]AFP inputs[/source_without_link]