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Field of Action
 

The action of ISF is inspired by article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ("Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers”) and, on the Italian front, by article 21 of the Constitution, the Consumer Rights Charter, to the Treviso Charter on the Protection of Minors and to the Charter of the Duties of Journalists. 

ISF is especially inspired by the Florence Charter for Free Journalism, according to which: “Journalists are free individuals who act according to recognised universal ethical and deontological  principles and who refuse to promote campaigns of hatred, violence or discrimination against particular individuals or against the community.  Journalists act by reporting national and international public opinion based on a fiduciary relationship that is assured by their own professional correctness and autonomy as against governments, political parties, powerful economic interests or other strong subjects interested in controlling the flow of information.  Access to free and pluralistic information is a fundamental right of all people, and states are bound to guarantee it without limitation or censorship and to assure its effective exercise by favouring access to information and all necessary resources and technical means for the publishing industry.  States should moreover guarantee the free association of information professionals and favour and acknowledge the activity of recognised professional organisations in the field of the protection of human rights.  The signatories furthermore invite the International Community, and in particular the United Nations, to promote a new safety regulation:

1) Guaranteeing the freedom and safety of journalists and their collaborators in war zones, considering these persons and their activity as "civilian," thereby excluding them from military actions and military actions and military restrictions.

2) Guaranteeing the safety of journalists and their collaborators inside national situations considered as "crisis areas," defending them from the attacks of governments, organised crime or political groups against their physical integrity and freedom of expression..

3) Guaranteeing full pluralism and the autonomy of the information system from political power and from concentrations of financial and economic power, by promoting laws that establish incompatibilities and prohibit narrow oligarchies that condition the free stance of public opinion.  It is of the utmost necessity to create international institutions, universally recognised, that have sanctioning power against anyone guilty of actions attacking the physical integrity, freedom and full independence of journalists and the exercise of their profession.” 

For these purposes, ISF commits:  

1) To support, with all means, the media and journalists engaged in the struggle for freedom of information. 

2) To favour reflection among information professionals about their responsibility in comparison to that of ordinary citizens.  

3) To fight against any form of censorship, sequestration, illegal searches or laws or regulations that restrict the freedom of information and threaten the confidentiality of sources. 

4) To organise, in Italy or in foreign countries, training activities, including training in media literacy and other actions to help information consumers decode media language and use instruments of communication (in particular the new technologies). 

5) Also to organise qualification courses for training skilled operators in communication, trade union regulations and techniques for the protection of professional autonomy and the culture of rights under international law.  

6) To defend the rights of consumers of information, especially those categories who are the weakest and most disadvantaged (children, the elderly and others). 

7) To promote the development of a  communications network among journalists worldwide.  

8) To encourage in the best and most opportune way the adoption of charters, publishing industry documents, laws, international treaties and whatever other measures may be available to guarantee the freedom of information and the right of citizens to be informed as fairly and comprehensively as possible.  

9) To prevent by all means in its power the use of the media for racist, sexist or discriminatory campaigns or those that promote violence and to seek to end them, including by way of the appropriate judicial processes. 

10) To obtain the prompt and unconditional release, through interventions, appropriate campaigns and pressure on local, national and international authorities, without conditions, of journalists who have been arrested for reasons connected to their professional activity (if they have not encouraged the use of violence, racism or any other kind of discrimination) or their national, racial, ethnic, religious, philosophical or political affiliation or their sex.  In case of procedures for non-political crimes, ISF will fight to the end so that the journalist will be judged in accordance with international law, and that in no case will he or she be subject to torture or made to suffer abuse. 

11) To defend journalists who are victims of persecution because of their professional activities, their national, racial, ethnic, religious, philosophical or political affiliation or their sex and, if necessary, to pursue or to cause to be pursued by justice those who commit such persecutions. 

12) To collaborate in full independence with non-governmental or governmental institutions that operate for the same goals.  

13) To work as a centre for documentation and analysis about the conditions of press freedom in various countries, to record and denounce the more urgent cases attacking journalists or the media by appropriate alerts spread  on the ISF web-site and in the media, and to organise and hold meetings and workshops, and to publish materials, about the specific situations in various countries and on the active tendencies in the international media system, particularly regarding the relationship between the right to information and democracy.  

14) To promote the culture and the practice of the safety of journalists through independent production and translations of handbooks, organising workshops and conventions with journalists and safety specialists, and promoting the preparation of agreements between publishers and agencies in a position to instruct correspondents about rules of safety, taking proper measures and organising course about the safety of journalists.
 

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