A United Nations envoy today criticised heavy-handed police action against May Day marchers as deplorable and urged the government to recognise the right and need of the people to demonstrate peacefully as it resulted from government restrictions on freedom of expression and the press.

UN Special Rapporteur on the Independence of Judges and Lawyers Param Cumarasamy said, When freedom of the press, including the electronic media, is curtailed by censorship, directly or self-imposed, or by control by the government, then the public or certain sections of the public will be denied the space to express or impart their opinion publicly.

He said this while launching malaysiakini s press freedom wall exhibit at the web publications office in Kuala Lumpur today.

Param maintains there is nothing wrong with peaceful demonstrations within the context of international law as it is specifically provided for under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the 1998 UN Declaration on Human Rights Defenders.

According to him, the covenant expressly provides for the right to demonstrate peacefully and even imposes on governments certain obligations to recognise this right and protect the participants.

Assertions by our political masters that participating in protests and demonstrations are not the Malaysian way of settling problems could be countered by asking whether it meant that government control of the freedom of the media is a Malaysian way of dealing with democratic rights, he stated.

Param was referring to the disruption of yesterdays May Day celebrations in Kuala Lumpur when police attacked and arrested 17 participants of a peace walk from Chow Kit Road to Kuala Lumpur City Centre.

Among those arrested were Suaram coordinator S Arutchelvam, Parti Sosialis Malaysia pro tem president Dr Nasir Mohd Hashim and vice-president Dr D Jeyakumar. Those arrested had since been released on police bail.

Mother of all freedoms

The UN envoy stressed that freedom of expression in society is crucial for the public to be able to understand all their human rights.

[Freedom of expression] is sometimes described as the mother of all freedoms. It is only in societies where the free flow of information and ideas is permitted that individuals will be aware of their rights and seek to vindicate them, he said.

According to him, serious violations of human rights can only be effectively challenged when citizens have access to the widest possible sources of information, make their views known, challenge accepted orthodoxies, participate in democratic debate and influence events.

Param also disputed the popular view that government-owned media should only support the government and the political party in power.

He referred to a 1993 judgement of the Ghanian Supreme Court which stated that state-owned media are indeed, national assets which belong to the community and not to the abstraction known as the state, the government or its party.

If such national assets were to become the mouthpiece of anyone or combination of the parties vying for power, democracy would be no more than a sham, Param quoted the Court as saying.

Press freedom wall

Param was speaking during the launch of malaysiakini s press freedom wall in conjunction with the World Press Freedom Day which falls tomorrow.

The press freedom wall is an exhibit of a series of publications dating back to the late 1940s which were banned from distribution by the government.

The unveiling of the wall also marks the start of a series of events planned by various journalists to take place over the month to highlight press restrictions in Malaysia.

May 3 was first declared as the World Press Freedom Day in 1993 by the United Nations General Assembly under the recommendation of a 1991 UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) resolution on Promotion of press freedom in the world.

The resolution was passed to recognise that a free, pluralistic and independent press was an essential component of any democratic society.

The May 3 event is also intended by the UN to remind the public of violations of the right to freedom of expression and that many journalists around the work risk their lives by professional choice, in an effort to promote the free flow of information, by asserting press freedom on behalf of all members of society.

( Pictures 1 and 2 courtesy of Colin Nicholas )