CPJ, RSF, and partners urge G20 leaders to uphold media access

The Committee to Protect Journalists, together with Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and 19 other organizations, experts, and news leaders, are calling on Group of 20 leaders to ensure that “journalists and news organizations will be able to freely cover deliberations by representatives of the world’s largest economies, whose decisions have broad ramifications around the world.”

The letter follows the alarming news that the U.S. Treasury Department blocked several journalists from The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News, and the Asheville Watchdog from covering the most recent finance ministers’ meeting in Asheville, N.C.

“No single country or official should have the authority to limit or hand-pick which journalists or news organizations may cover the event. Press access is not a privilege to be granted to favored journalists. It is essential to the public’s right to know,” said the letter, signed by members of the Media 20 initiative, an independent initiative working to ensure that the G20 supports a free, independent, and sustainable media ecosystem.

“We need policymakers to acknowledge that information moves markets — from the corner stalls to the stock exchanges — and that information must be accurate and timely. Journalists are vital to keeping investors and the general public informed, and they must be able to report freely,” said Gypsy Guillén Kaiser, chief global affairs officer at CPJ.

CPJ leads the U.S. host committee as part of the Media 20.

Read the full letter here.