Assertion for the twenty third Session of the UN Everlasting Discussion board on Indigenous Points  by the Indigenous Media Caucus

April 15-26, 2024

Agenda Merchandise 4 : Dialogue on the six mandated areas of the Everlasting Discussion board, just about the UNDRIP and the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Growth.

Thanks, Chair, and congratulations in your election to steer the Everlasting Discussion board.

The Indigenous Media Caucus, representing journalists and media makers from throughout the globe, stands earlier than you at this time. We honor the Indigenous Peoples who’ve safeguarded our lands for generations. Nonetheless, their conventional information and modern struggles face fixed threats, from useful resource extraction to criminalization.

Our battle in opposition to these colonial narratives continues. Indigenous journalists who report on important points like land rights and self-determination face intimidation, violence, and even demise. This chilling impact stifles press protection from our communities, instantly hindering the success of Article 16 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples – the suitable to freely entry media that displays our realities.

Throughout the globe, Indigenous journalists face a chilling actuality: threats, harassment, and violence for reporting on important points. From Indigenous journalists dealing with intimidation in India to the closure of Rádio Yanomami in Brazil after deforestation studies, these watchdogs are silenced for talking fact to energy. In Nepal, Indigenous journalists investigating Indigenous points are focused, whereas Philippine journalists face a barrage of on-line assaults and lawsuits for criticizing the federal government, and Palestinian journalists are systematically killed for protecting the realities on the bottom. This systematic suppression extends to Guatemala, the place a journalist misplaced her radio station for exposing corruption, and Colombia, the place an Indigenous station confronted threats for reporting human rights abuses.

The Indigenous Media Caucus makes the next suggestions to the Everlasting Discussion board:

1. Urge member states to develop and implement nationwide motion plans, in session with Indigenous communities, to make sure the security and safety of Indigenous journalists and communicators

2. Urge UN companies to collaborate with member states to ensure Indigenous Peoples’ proper to entry media and knowledge of their Indigenous languages, as enshrined in Article 16 of UNDRIP.

3. Work with Indigenous journalists to acquire crucial accreditation on the UN to cowl UN occasions, such because the UNPFII, as Indigenous group media shops.

Thanks, Madam Chair.