Globe International is holding a Round Table entitled “Article 19 and Independent Journalism” on December 8, 2008, at the conference hall of the Open Society Forum.  It is dedicated to the 60th Anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) and is expected to attract over 60 participants. Media researchers and journalism teachers will give presentations on current issues of journalism in Mongolia.

Mongolia has made significant advances towards free and independent media. The Constitution of Mongolia guarantees citizen rights, including the freedom to express opinions, to publish, and to seek and receive information. The 1998 Media Freedom law forbids censorship and prohibits state ownership of any media. The Mongolian media landscape is changing rapidly, and there are now almost 400 media outlets nationwide. In Ulaanbaatar alone there are 10 television channels.

However, Mongolian journalists face a numbers of problems in the exercise of their professional rights. Globe International registers about 40 violations of free expression every year. Journalists are often denied access to information by government bodies. Forcing journalists to divulge confidential sources is common. In most cases, the journalist is threatened with arrest, imprisonment, prosecution and police action. There have been numerous cases in which journalists have been pressured to reveal information sources. The 2002 Criminal Law of Mongolia has strict provisions on libel and slander, and these provisions are regularly used against journalists who have published or threatened to publish criticisms.

Mongolia still lacks important legal provisions to enable an environment allowing the exercise of citizen rights concerning expression and information.

The 60th anniversary of the UDHR is the right time to advocate and lobby the government for the enactment and amendment of a numbers of laws governing matters such as freedom of information, source protection, state secrets, criminal defamation, media ownership, broadcasting etc.

Globe International is planning to publish a document entitled “Everyone’s Right to Information,” which will include international laws and standards of freedom of expression