First, as you know, Canada is a co-chair of the Media Freedom Coalition, currently co-chairing this caucus with the Netherlands. In that space, obviously there is a lot to be done in raising awareness and underlining violations of press freedom, media freedom and freedom of expression globally speaking. However, on a more specific set of suggestions, with your permission I might underline three that are very concrete.
As Clayton just mentioned, in May we will have World Press Freedom Day, which this year will be celebrated under the topic “Journalism under Digital Siege”. This is a very important opportunity for Canada and your missions abroad to really underline the issues, the different elements of attacking journalism and press freedom worldwide, and support those players, civil society organizations and others, that are actually in this huge fight to protect press freedom worldwide. This is number one.
Number two, as I also mentioned, this year we are commemorating the 10th anniversary of the United Nations plan of action on the safety of journalists and the issue of impunity. Canada is a member of different caucuses in different UN headquarters. This is what we call the “groups of friends on the safety of journalists”. Canada can really be a very strategic player, which it has already been, in supporting and further enhancing the importance of this global United Nations plan on the safety of journalists and the issue of impunity.
Finally, in the different processes for specific countries under the Human Rights Council that we call the Universal Periodic Review, it would be very important if Canada could really keep a very good eye on the specific issues of freedom of expression and press freedom when a particular country is being examined under the Universal Periodic Review. As you know, it's a global human rights review process, and we do need to have more specific and intensive discussion of press freedom and freedom of expression issues during the Universal Periodic Review process for the different countries.