LOC23:41
20:41 GMT
CAIRO, May 6 (KUNA) -- The Federation of Arab Journalists (FAJ) published on Wednesday a report titled "press freedoms between authority and terrorism - crisis of freedoms in the Arab world between terrorism and prerequisites of national security."
The report says the Arab world underwent in the recent years highly-complicated and confused situations as a result of internal security turmoil in several countries.
Arab journalists became victims of repressive practices and persecution at the hands of totalitarian regimes, on one hand, and terrorist 'takfiri' groups, on the other, according to the repot.
The Cairo-based FAJ advised Arab countries to adopt radical policy reforms that could meet the legitimate aspirations of peoples and expand the margins of political, social and press freedoms, as a means of curbing the growing threats of terrorism.
The report analyzes the status of press freedom from three perspectives - the surveys of press syndicates, the reports of local and international civil society institutions, and the assessments of leaders of the media profession.
It points out that the current wave of violence by terrorist groups made many Arab governments prioritize the national security considerations over anything else, whether human rights or press and political freedoms.
Meanwhile, the report noted that the incomes of the majority of Arab journalists fall short of meeting the prerequisites of decent living, which, in turn, affects negatively on their impartiality and impunity to financial seduction.
Despite the growing tendency towards passing legislations on the journalists' right to information and press freedom, more than half of the 22 members of the Arab League still lack such legislations, according to the report.
The laws in many Arab countries, coupled with the atmospheres of repression and totalitarianism, still constitute an impediment to the development of the press profession, it concludes. (end)
rg.bsr.gb