First of all, thank you, honourable members, for this opportunity.
I'm here tonight on behalf of IFEX, a global network of groups defending freedom of expression and information in all its forms. Our aim is to increasingly leverage this work in the form of press freedom, access to information, and safety and justice for journalists among other rights.
Like others who spoke tonight, we are seeing the expansion of authoritarianism in all its forms. Information is being weaponized in ways that have a profound impact on people and are creating a kind of information chaos. In our network alone, misuse of access to information legislation, Internet shutdowns, misinformation, attacks on media and, of course, the murder of journalists are becoming routine. As the previous session highlighted, when those targeted directly with online disinformation and smear campaigns are women, the form the attacks take is usually gendered and often results in self-censorship. The aim is to silence these voices and it is doing just that.
We can see this play out in the current context. Immediate action is required in the most urgent situations, like Afghanistan, Belarus, Ethiopia, Myanmar, Nicaragua, Sudan, Ukraine and Russia, just to name a few.
As my colleague, Rachel, recommended, it's imperative that a coordinated system of emergency support for journalists at risk and their families be created. We see Canada already moving in the right direction on this, but we must continue to increase our effectiveness. To be effective, these systems should include providing emergency visas that have simple and secure methods of submission. In the absence of such, they should expedite the processing of visas for journalists and their families, and ensure safe passage.
Key to this is effective coordination with local and international civil society organizations, like Journalists for Human Rights, that are working to protect and evacuate journalists.
We see that media freedom has never been more crucial. Democracies cannot survive and flourish without free, independent and pluralistic media. We need to reverse engineer the current branding of the media as fake news and the enemy of the people as normal. It is a lexicon that has been adopted around the world. It is language that is mimicked and acted upon and includes continued verbal and physical attacks on the media with total impunity.
This has had a profound impact on press freedom and journalists in particular. Be sure that no country, including Canada, is exempt from this trend. This narrative needs to be countered forcefully with words and actions.
Outside of intervening in urgent situations, the government must play a significant, ongoing role in reinforcing the importance of press freedom and respect for journalists in its own national context.
There is also a need for accountability. The criminalization of journalism and abuse of law by state actors has to end. We call on multilateral relationships and institutions to ensure that those who attack the media face real consequences for their actions. Otherwise, attacks against the press will continue to escalate and any standards championed by Canada will remain empty.
Within these relationships, Canada must be visible by being connected and committed to international mechanisms, engage in coalitions, fund and acknowledge the benefit of international institutions in upholding press freedom and be present and vocal in support of their efforts. Canada's leadership as co-chair of the Media Freedom Coalition, as current chair of the Freedom Online Coalition, as well as with the Community of Democracies working group on enabling and protecting civil society is already a very positive and welcome example of this.
At IFEX, our network of over 100 organizations based in more than 70 countries actively advocates for freedom of expression and information as a fundamental human right. Many do so in very dangerous circumstances. The targeted repression of press freedom advocates and journalists and the attack on communities and institutions see accepted norms being undermined and weakened.
We have been called on to do more direct support for our members across all regions who find themselves increasingly under attack by authoritarian states that are focused on shutting down the voices of civil society and threatening dissent at any price. Organizations whose offices and staff are targeted and harassed with no other aim but closure and erasure need to be supported, funded and engaged with because these are the voices that call for accountability. If these voices are shuttered, it will leave a vacuum for democracy.
We know these issues are complex. IFEX members and allies around the world have been working on them for years by doing grassroots advocacy, publishing reports and indexes, offering solutions, and campaigning. They are a rich pool of knowledge that could inform Canada's policies and discussions with nuance and a national and global perspective. As part of your efforts and your focus on media freedom, we would welcome being a conduit to these sources.
Governments and civil society groups need to continue to find ways to collaborate and to be at the table together.
Thank you.