NationStates Jolt Archive

Please give a look at my proposal and give it your approval - I believe these are fundamental rights and duties for any democracy to uphold. Also, UN delegates, even if you do not totally agree eith my proposal but simply find it a valid topic for discussion please give your approval. At least that's what I do. Thanks.

***

We, the United Nations,

Defining a journalist as a person, within legally-recognized adulthood, whose main professional occupation is the gathering, selection and treatment of facts, news or opinions, through text, image or sound, destined to be delivered by press, news agency, radio, television or any other form of electronic broadcasting,

Recognizing the importance of a worldwide respect to the free flow of information and the intermediary role played by the journalist in the maintenance of said free flow,

Hereby declare these to be the basic rights of the journalist:

1 – A journalist shall have complete press access in all United Nations member countries, given that he is properly identified and affiliated with a credited medium organization. A International Press Registry Committee shall be created for the purpose of defining what constitutes a credited medium organization and affiliate branches shall be placed in every UN member nation;

2 – A journalist shall never be forced to reveal his sources, under no circumstances, even in the case of criminal prosecution, enjoying the same rights of privilege as any other privileged occupation (e.g. a lawyer);

3 – A journalist shall always be awarded the right of free expression, free from any form of exterior pressure (internal, governmental or economic). A special UN committee shall be put together in each of the UN member countries to monitor this compliance.

Given that no such rights shall come without some degree of responsibility, the UN also declares these to be the basic duties of the journalist:

1 – A journalist must always uphold his work to the standard of factual truth. Any journalist who fails to do so is liable to legal prosecution by the injured party in the article and/or be subject to government sanctions. The exceptions to this rule (e.g. a satirical article or a column), must be explicitly shown as such;

2 – A journalist should never reveal his sources, being subject, in the event of a breach of trust, to the same sanctions predicted in any other profession that includes a right to privilege (e.g. a lawyer). This rule only applies in the case of a request of anonymity by the source;

3 – And finally, a journalist shall always respect the privilege of being awarded the right to free expression and strive to provide his audience with the best kind of journalism he can, making such quality the benchmark for the worldwide free flow of ideas.

***

Just a small point... Are all journalists male? No, so I would recommend removing the sexist language from the proposal.

Just a small point... Are all journalists male? No, so I would recommend removing the sexist language from the proposal.

Excuse me? I define the journalist as a "person" in the first paragraph of the proposal. That is sexist how? Besides, I trust people to realize the redundancy of having to put he/she everytime we refer to a person. Please - this is a proposal about the right's and duties of news professionals, please comment on that. I can guarantee you that when I put he, I meant in no way to be sexist - I just thought (and how naive am I!) that the women's cause has slightly more important battles than a "/she" after each damn article.

[QUOTE=Quedas] A International Press Registry Committee shall be created [QUOTE]

Game Mechanics, You cannot create committes

Also who would be on a committee such as this, How would it be dictated who would lead so on so fourth too many questions are raised by this. Is the committee made up of honorable UN members or a group of Highly Skilled journalists or terroists??

Unless some questions can be brought to rest, I cannot support this.

[QUOTE=Quedas] A International Press Registry Committee shall be created [QUOTE]

Game Mechanics, You cannot create committes

Also who would be on a committee such as this, How would it be dictated who would lead so on so fourth too many questions are raised by this. Is the committee made up of honorable UN members or a group of Highly Skilled journalists or terroists??

Unless some questions can be brought to rest, I cannot support this.

It's not a game mechanics issue - if we view this that way, every resolution is a game mechanics issue. I think we all realize that all of this is more or less abstract - UN resolutions are more statements of moral values than they are effective changes in any country. The commitee was added to the proposal when a fellow "nationstater" told me I couldn't establish a free acess without defining waht IS a credited medium organization - I was just trying to avoid making my bill all about the ideals, I was just trying to accurately depict what I meant by establishing universal right's and duties of the journalist's.

1 – A journalist shall have complete press access in all United Nations member countries, given that he is properly identified and affiliated with a credited medium organization. A International Press Registry Committee shall be created for the purpose of defining what constitutes a credited medium organization and affiliate branches shall be placed in every UN member nation;

cannot support, this could be used to gain access to sensitive material, military information, and the very protected information you later cite ie. doctor's records


2 – A journalist shall never be forced to reveal his sources, under no circumstances, even in the case of criminal prosecution, enjoying the same rights of privilege as any other privileged occupation (e.g. a lawyer);


and

1 – A journalist must always uphold his work to the standard of factual truth. Any journalist who fails to do so is liable to legal prosecution by the injured party in the article and/or be subject to government sanctions. The exceptions to this rule (e.g. a satirical article or a column), must be explicitly shown as such;

disagree as it may be impossible to support the "standard of factual truth" based on a leaked document, thus the journalist must reveal their source, but they can't due to (2) above

As such, The Republic of Marric cannot support this proposal

Marric']cannot support, this could be used to gain access to sensitive material, military information, and the very protected information you later cite ie. doctor's records



and



disagree as it may be impossible to support the "standard of factual truth" based on a leaked document, thus the journalist must reveal their source, but they can't due to (2) above

As such, The Republic of Marric cannot support this proposal


First point - complete free access is bound to the restrictions imposed in each country - all I meant was that a journalist from The United States of Quedas working in The Republic of Marric as the same access as a journalist from Marric.

Second point - the two other points don't contradict at all - the standard of factual truth is not dependent on the identity of the source. If a leaked document shows that a factory has been, for example, ilegally disposing toxic waste in a river, all that has to be proved is that they actually did it - that is not at all dependent on who leaked the information. It can be Mr. A, B or X - what really counts is the data in the document.

Think about it. If you reconsider, don't forget to give your support.

Hmm Isate cannot give its support to this draft at this current time.

The People's Republic of Coquetvia believes it is not in the national interest to encourage free press, or resolutions leading to the possibility of free press.

Free press encourages dangerous behaviour among citizens, and the rule of the People's Republic of Coquetvia is not to be questioned.

The People's Republic of Coquetvia can not support this draft in it's current form, and is unlikely to support any such draft unless further restrictions are imposed upon journalistic behaviour.

A International Press Registry Committee shall be created

Game Mechanics, You cannot create committes

Also who would be on a committee such as this, How would it be dictated who would lead so on so fourth too many questions are raised by this. Is the committee made up of honorable UN members or a group of Highly Skilled journalists or terroists??

Unless some questions can be brought to rest, I cannot support this.
Actually, yes you can. I refer you to the Rules For UN Proposals (http://forums.jolt.co.uk/showthread.php?t=420465)
Creating Stuff

Committees may be created, as long as certain things are kept in mind: nations do not sit on committees, they are staffed by mystical beings that instantly spring into existance and live only to serve on said committee. Committees are also bound by the above MetaGame rules. Also, keep in mind that Committees are additions to Proposals; they shouldn't be all the Proposal does.

No. First, there is already too much government control over what qualifies as credible journalism and approved journalists. This would be too easy to control free speech by regulating it in this manner. Second, why should other countries let foreign journalists into their borders? What if a UN member country is using journalists as spies? My policy is that all foreign journalists attempting unauthorized entry into our nation will be detained without trial and executed as spies, and their contacts from their home country will not be notified of their untimely death.

No. First, there is already too much government control over what qualifies as credible journalism and approved journalists. This would be too easy to control free speech by regulating it in this manner. Second, why should other countries let foreign journalists into their borders? What if a UN member country is using journalists as spies? My policy is that all foreign journalists attempting unauthorized entry into our nation will be detained without trial and executed as spies, and their contacts from their home country will not be notified of their untimely death.

First, regulation of what constitutes free speech is not an attempt to prevent free speech - Second, I don't even know what to answer back to that Cold War mentality answer. I honestly can't believe one of the reasons people are not supporting my resolution is because they are afraid the journalists are used as spies - particularly when I say especifically that a commitee shall be created to monitor what is a credited medium organization, as opposed to the CIA!

I honestly can't believe one of the reasons people are not supporting my resolution is because they are afraid the journalists are used as spies - particularly when I say especifically that a commitee shall be created to monitor what is a credited medium organization, as opposed to the CIA!
I think it's a reasonable concern in some regards. Anything other than complete control of the national government over how spies are kept out of journalism will likely make a few nations unhappy because their security is not being looked after by those with it as their sole concern (a national government can have only its interests at heart, whereas an international body can make decisions which will compromise interests of nations as it doesn't look after nations' interests).

I don't like the confidentiality clauses, or the "factual truth" clauses in this proposal--and I think the whole "responsibilities" thing can be discarded as it seems a reiteration of their rights (it reads to me, at first glance, something like "You have the right to remain silent; you have the responsibility to decide for yourself, independent of me, whether or not to speak...". I think this proposal needs some adjustment before submitted.