Underlining the important role of the free press in protecting democracy and a rules-based international order, Canada’s High Commissioner to Guyana Lilian Chatterjee on Friday noted the challenging conditions facing journalists and pledged Ottawa’s solidarity with them.
“Increasingly, the media landscape is a very difficult terrain to navigate on its own, but it is even more dangerous when members of the media are attacked and muzzled in the execution of their duties. Many still soldier on regardless of the risk because they are committed and determined to uphold this important hallmark of democracy,” Chatterjee told a World Press Freedom Day event hosted at the residence of the British High Commissioner Greg Quinn at Bel Air Gardens, in Georgetown.
“Canada will always defend journalistic freedom and stand against any violence, intimidation, censorship, lawsuits threatening permanent injunctions of dissemination of factual information and false arrests used to silence journalists. From international broadcasters that bring the world into our homes, to local newspapers that empower us to shape the communities we live in – we know that a free press helps build stronger and healthier societies,” she added.
