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Decentralized Democracy

House Hansard - 311

44th Parl. 1st Sess.
May 8, 2024 02:00PM
Context: House Hansard - 311 - May/8/24
Mr. Taleeb Noormohamed (Vancouver Granville, Lib.)
  • May/8/24 2:24:16 p.m.
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Mr. Speaker, May 3 commemorated World Press Freedom Day, a day when we celebrate journalists for the work that they do and the risks they take to keep us informed. They pay a high price, with attacks by groups from authoritarian regimes to criminal enterprises. Journalists risk life and limb pursuing truth. This year, the price was high. It was the deadliest year on record, with 115 journalists dead in conflict zones. They worked with the word “press” emblazoned on their flak jackets, sharing stories that we need to hear. Hundreds more languished in jail. As the Leader of the Opposition and others, as we have just heard, boast about putting “for sale” signs on the CBC, many around the world are putting up gravestones instead. It is a short trip from rhetorical attacks on the press to actual violence. As journalists perish in jails and newsrooms dim their lights, truth and fiction become harder and harder to distinguish. I am proud to be part of a government that stands with journalists, champions facts over misinformation and reinforces the democratic values we hold dear.
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