Subcommittee on International Human Rights Committee on March 21st, 2022

[Clayton Weimers, Deputy Director, Washington D.C. Bureau, Reporters Without Borders]

Thank you very much. Thank you for holding this session and inviting Reporters Without Borders to participate.

I'm very glad that my fellow witness before me mentioned “impunity” so often. We are going to have a similar theme that we're both going to be touching on here.

Over a thousand journalists and media personnel have been killed while exercising their profession over the last 15 years. We at RSF are committed not just to documenting and highlighting these negative conditions facing journalists but to actively improving the situation.

In conflict zones, such as Syria and Ukraine, journalists are being deliberately targeted. Four journalists have been killed in Ukraine since the war began, two have disappeared, and many more have been shot at, harassed and detained. RSF is documenting each and every case, and it's essential that we hold responsible parties accountable. We cannot allow journalists to be targeted with impunity.

Now, from the outset of Russia's invasion, we knew we also needed to be involved on the ground. That's why we rushed to set up the Lviv press freedom centre, which is a hub for all journalists who are covering the conflict. It's located in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv. It's a place any reporter can go to to collect protective gear like helmets and bulletproof vests, get financial or digital security support, or even just find a quiet place to charge their phone and file their story.

The dangers facing journalists are not limited to war zones. Right here in our North American backyard, seven journalists have been killed in Mexico in 2022 alone—and it's only March. Again, these murders against reporters are carried out with apparent impunity.

The problem is indeed global, and all democratic governments have a responsibility to help protect journalists around the world. To that end, I'd like to highlight one emblematic case with a uniquely Canadian angle. Saudi blogger Raif Badawi has been released from prison after serving a 10-year sentence for insulting Islam online. He was released last week, but now he's facing a 10-year travel ban. Why is that significant? Well, his wife and three children have resettled in Quebec. It's long past time for Raif to be reunited with his family, and RSF strongly urges the Canadian government and the Saudi government to work together and do whatever it takes to bring the family back together.

Raif's case is just one that is deeply illustrative of the dangers facing journalists in repressive regimes, not just in Saudi Arabia but around the world. Despite widely agreed-upon norms and recent gains in an international legal framework, repressive regimes act against the free press with impunity. As I said, this is a global problem, so it's going to require a global solution. That's why RSF is also urging Canada to support a United Nation's resolution calling for the creation of a special envoy for the protection of journalists. This would give the international community a concrete mechanism to support international law and protect journalists worldwide. It's a vital step towards ending the impunity.

Thank you again for holding this session and inviting me to speak. I look forward to taking your questions.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

Thank you very much, Mr. Weimers.

Now, if we could turn to questions from the members, we're going to have two rounds. For the first round, we'll keep questions restricted to five minutes, please, and for the second round it will be four minutes each.

We start off with Mr. Zuberi.

[Sameer Zuberi, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Thanks to both witnesses for being here and really focusing on the importance of protecting journalists in the human rights context.

I'd like to start off with Reporters Without Borders and Mr. Weimers. I perused your site and saw the map that you have of the world. Certain countries, indicated in black, have very bad records when it comes to press freedom, and others, in red, also don't have stellar records. Do you want to tell us a bit about how you make that schema and how you determine which countries fall into the black zone, the red zone, and so on?

[Clayton Weimers]

Sure. There's a scoring system that takes into account a huge amount of data. It starts with obvious things like the arbitrary arrest or the murder of a journalist and the level of impunity that perpetrators of attacks against journalists enjoy in that country. It goes down to more qualitative data as well. We have correspondents on the ground in most countries, and if they can't be in a particular country, they're monitoring the country from abroad. They are really keyed in on the situation that reporters on the ground face day in, day out, and are registering what the culture of free press is in those particular countries.

If you look at any particular country's page on our website, there should be a score accompanying its ranking. That is, at the end of the day, what's going to determine whether they fall into the black or the dark red zone.

I'm glad you asked, because we're actually in the process of analyzing the data for next year's index, which will be coming out on international World Press Freedom Day this May. We have actually revamped the system a bit. We're going to be taking in even more data than we ever have before, so we are hoping that this is going to be the most accurate representation of the situation of press freedom in various countries.

[Sameer Zuberi, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Interestingly, I perused your site and tried to look for a difference between 2019 and 2021. I noticed that America actually improved on your record, so that was really interesting to observe. I didn't notice any other countries that had a marked improvement, although I do hope there was a positive trend to the future.

I'd like to—

Go ahead, please, if you have a particular comment.

[Clayton Weimers]

I was going to say that from one year to the next it would be rare to see a significant change, unless there is some sort of large-scale political change. However, if you look over a longer period, maybe three, four or five years, you're more likely to see shifts up and down the list.

[Sameer Zuberi, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

I'll look out for that personally.

I'll now go to our other witness.

In your opinion, how can Canada leverage our capacities? On the international stage, at bilateral or multilateral meetings, how can we leverage what we have to really shore up press freedom around the world?

[Guilherme Canela de Souza Godoi]

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.

[Sameer Zuberi, Liberal, Pierrefonds—Dollard, QC]

Thank you, Mr. de Souza Godoi, for those specific examples.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

Thank you.

We now turn to Mr. Viersen.

Mr. Viersen, you have five minutes.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

I would like to return to Mr. Weimers.

In talking about this, I'm intrigued by these press freedom centres. Could you explain a little bit more about how they work? Is there any country that participates in that and provides its consular services to be where one of these places could be set up?

I'm thinking that Canada could perhaps participate in allowing our consular services to have one of these press freedom centres adjacent to it or tied on to the side of it or something like that.

[Clayton Weimers]

I think that is a really interesting suggestion, one that we're not currently engaged in, but that is definitely something that I think would be interesting. The way our press freedom centre works in Lviv is that it is a fully donor-funded project that is there to be a resource for any journalist—whether they're a freelancer, whether they have the backing of a media organization or even if they're a citizen journalist. Citizen journalists are often forgotten when we're talking about protections for journalists. They lack many of the resources that their colleagues at large media organizations might enjoy.

It was clear from the outset of this war that too many reporters were ill-equipped to cover a war zone, down to the very basics of having press accreditation, a helmet, a bulletproof vest and a first aid kit with their party. The primary focus that we have undertaken here is to make sure that we can be of material support to reporters and provide this resource.

One of the big challenges has been getting these kinds of materials sourced in Europe. Many suppliers are out, and many governments have pretty severe restrictions on anything they would consider to be military-grade, which obviously comes into play when you're talking about bulletproof vests.

If I imagine any way that a Canadian consulate, for example, could be of assistance, one of those ways would be to facilitate the resupply of that protective gear for journalists.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Thank you for that recommendation. It's exactly what we're looking for.

You touched briefly on credentialing. What's the process for your organization to credential, and how do you ascertain that?

[Clayton Weimers]

I should be clear: Reporters Without Borders does not credential journalists, because we are not a media organization. We're just an NGO, but we do work a lot with freelance reporters, who don't necessarily have official accreditation from a media organization. We can connect them.

Oftentimes, if you're going in as a freelance journalist, you might not have that helmet that says “press” on it. You might not have that vest that says “press” on it. That can often be the difference between a soldier on the ground stopping you or not stopping you, shooting at you or not shooting at you. These things make a big difference.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

Is there some need for assistance, in your estimation, around credentialing, and is there opportunity for us to help with that?

[Clayton Weimers]

I think credentialing is mostly up to the organizations themselves. The Ukrainian government also has to respect press credentials. We have seen some issues where curfews have been imposed or where credentials have been revoked in certain cities or under certain situations.

It's a very fluid situation in Ukraine. We have to accept that there are always going to be some risks when it comes to covering a war zone. I think the most important thing to keep in mind, if we're talking about what governments like Canada's can do to help, is to make sure that, in your dialogues with your Ukrainian counterparts, you emphasize the importance of respecting the free access of information, allowing reporters to do their jobs and not stopping them from documenting what's going on.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

I'd quickly reinforce that recommendation you made a minute ago around the equipment. What kind of equipment are we talking about?

[Clayton Weimers]

We're talking about bulletproof vests, flak jackets, helmets, tourniquets and first aid kits.

[Arnold Viersen, Conservative, Peace River—Westlock, AB]

You're looking for Canada to help with that.

Thanks.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

Thank you, Mr. Viersen.

We now turn to Mr. Trudel.

You have five minutes, sir.

[Denis Trudel, Bloc, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

My question is for Mr. Weimers.

You spoke earlier about the case of Raif Badawi. I would like to come back to this one, because it is a test case, in a way. This case received a lot of media attention, at least in Canada, and particularly in Quebec, given that Mr. Badawi's wife is a Quebecker and lives in Sherbrooke. It was a very emotional case in the House of Commons. Every week for I don't know how many years, a vigil has been held in Sherbrooke for Mr. Badawi; on Fridays at noon, people gather with signs. Journalists are talking about it. There was even a meeting between Raif Badawi's wife and Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Nevertheless, Mr. Badawi spent 10 years in prison, despite the fact that his case received a lot of media attention, that the Canadian government exerted pressure and that there were motions in the House.

What could have been done or what should have been done to prevent Mr. Badawi from spending 10 years in prison? Right now, Mr. Badawi is out of prison, but he is still in Saudi Arabia, and we are wondering whether he will be able to see his wife and children again. You mentioned that earlier.

What did Canada not do and could have done to help secure Mr. Badawi's release?

Now that he is in Saudi Arabia and his children are here, what kind of pressure can Canada exert or what means can we use to bring Mr. Badawi back to Quebec?

[Clayton Weimers]

It's a great question. It's a very complicated situation, obviously.

One thing that has been discussed is granting Mr. Badawi Canadian citizenship. I think that could potentially change the conversation with the Saudi government. I think it becomes much less tenable to have a travel restriction on a Canadian citizen.

I think it's also important just to keep this story alive, to keep talking about it and not to let it get brushed under the rug. Too often, cases like Raif Badawi's, they happen, they garner a lot of media attention, and then the repressive regime simply waits it out. It waits for the general public to move on to the next story. We can't let that happen. We have to keep the pressure on. We have to let the Saudi government know that we're paying attention, that we are engaged and that we're not going to stop until they do the right thing here and allow the Badawi family to reunite.

[Denis Trudel, Bloc, Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC]

Thank you, Mr. Weimers.

I'd like to build on that, and turn now to Mr. Canela de Souza Godoi.

Raif Badawi's case has received a lot of media attention. Furthermore, negotiations can often take place to free political prisoners or human rights defenders around the world. Sometimes these negotiations are done discreetly, diplomatically, by phone calls between governments at night. There are also high‑profile cases, which are talked about a lot, such as Mr. Badawi's case. Since governments tend not to like to lose face, especially those with repressive regimes, some people say that the more media attention a case gets, the less likely it is that people will be released from prison in those countries.

What do you think, Mr. Canela de Souza Godoi? Generally speaking, when dealing with repressive governments, is it better to let diplomacy play a role? On the contrary, do you think that speaking to the media can become an important tool?

[Guilherme Canela de Souza Godoi]

Thank you for the question. It's a very difficult one.

In my 20 years of experience as an international civil servant dealing with freedom of expression, I have witnessed all the different elements, and they are not all the same. In many situations, quiet diplomacy is very effective in dealing with those cases. In many other situations, being outspoken is the more efficient course of action. It's very difficult to know where precisely this would be the case because there aren't particular criteria to be applied.

That's why it is so important to have very conscious and permanent monitoring of freedom of expression and press freedom situations. These allow us a multilateral environment, but also bilateral diplomacy to be aware of what is the best situation to be applied in considering each case.

If you will allow me, in terms of the medium-term and long-term actions, we see in these reports that UNESCO has just launched that we still have 160 countries all over the world with defamation laws. Obviously, this kind of situation of arresting journalists and using criminal law to attack freedom of expression is only possible because we still have this kind of legislation that is completely against the international standards and the recommendations of the Human Rights Council and the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

Countries like Canada can advocate even more for countries to really decriminalize freedom of expression and treat eventual problems of freedom of expression under civil law, not under criminal law.

[The Chair, Liberal, Ali Ehsassi]

Now, we turn to Ms. McPherson.

You have five minutes.