LONDON: The UK government Friday announced the appointment of a new media freedom champion in prominent human rights lawyer Amal Clooney to counter draconian laws that hinder journalists from going about their work.
The wife of Hollywood star George Clooney takes over as the UK Foreign Secretary's Special Envoy on Media Freedom and Co-Chair of a High Level Panel of Legal Experts.
"Violence against journalists has reached alarming levels globally and we cannot turn a blind eye," said UK foreign secretary Jeremy Hunt after a meeting with the Canadian Foreign Minister and Amal at a G7 event in France.
He said Amal's leading work on human rights means she was ideally placed to ensure this campaign has real impact for journalists and the free societies who depend on their work.
"She will use her expertise to chair a panel comprising the world's best legal minds to develop and promote legal mechanisms to prevent and reverse media abuses," Hunt said.
Amal, 41, said she was honoured to have been hand-picked for the new role.
"Through my legal work defending journalists I have seen first-hand the ways in which reporters are being targeted and imprisoned in an effort to silence them and prevent a free media," said Amal, who takes on the role on a pro bono basis.
"I welcome the UK Government's focus on this issue at a time when journalists are being killed and imprisoned at record levels all over the world and I look forward to working on new legal initiatives that can help to ensure a more effective international response," she said.
At the G7 meeting, Hunt set out the next stages of the UK's campaign to defend free media around the world.
The High Level Panel of Legal Experts will examine legal and policy initiatives that states can adopt to improve media freedom including by offering advice to governments who want to strengthen legal mechanisms to improve media freedom.
They will support the repeal of outdated and draconian laws; encourage and support governments to help ensure existing laws and international obligations are enforced and promoting best practice and model legislation to protect a vibrant free press.
"The media has a crucial role to play in holding the powerful to account.
"There is no escaping the fact that draconian and outdated laws around the world are being used to restrict the ability of the media to report the truth," the UK minister said.
The global campaign on media freedom aims to shine a spotlight on media abuses and reverse the trend of violence against journalists.
The announcement this week comes ahead of the International Conference on Media Freedom to be held in the UK in July, co-hosted with the Canadian government.
The conference will bring together leaders from around the world to share good practice on media freedom, and seek consensus behind the measures that can be taken to improve the protection of journalists.
The other members of the Panel of Legal Experts, along with the full Terms of Reference for the panel, will be confirmed in the coming months.