INTRODUCTION: Course Outline

Module One: Basic documents recognizing the principal of press freedom

The right to “seek” receive and impart information is recognized by article 19
of the universal declaration of Human rights, adopted on 10 December 1948.

This right is restated in the international covenant on civil and political rights,
which has been signed or ratified by more than 140 states,and in several
regional conventions and charters, such as the European convention for the
protection of the human rights and fundamental freedoms, the Inter-American
convention on human rights and the Africancharter of Human and people’s rights.

Extracts fromthese documents, which have the force of national law and which
journalismcan quote before the authorities in their own countries, are given
in this module.