The Extrajudicial Execution of Khashoggi and Press Freedom

Dr Agnès Callamard, the new Secretary General of Amnesty International, and former UN Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary or Arbitrary Killings, will talk about her report and investigation into the killing of Saudi  journalist, Jamal Khashoggi. That report, published in June 2019, concluded that the killing of Mr Khashoggi 'was the result of elaborate planning involving extensive coordination and significant human and financial resources. It was overseen, planned and endorsed by high-level officials.' The killing of Mr Khashoggi needs to be understood in the current environment of press freedom. The 2021 World Press Freedom Index published by Reporters Without Borders found that only 12 of the 180 countries measured have a favourable environment for journalism and the Index has shown a consistent decline in press freedom globally since the Index was founded in 2013. The discussant, Hungarian journalist and editor of 444.hu Mr Peter Erdelyi, will talk about challenges facing journalists in authoritarian states.

 

Dr Agnès Callamard is Secretary General at Amnesty International. She leads the organization's human rights work and is its chief spokesperson. She is responsible for providing overall leadership of the International Secretariat, including setting the strategic direction for the organisation and managing relations with Amnesty International’s national entities. Agnès has been a prominent figure in the human rights world for decades. In 2016, she was appointed as the United Nations Special Rapporteur on extra-judicial, summary or arbitrary killings. Along with her UN work, Agnès was also the Director of Global Freedom of Expression at Columbia University in New York. Previously she was Executive Director of the freedom of expression organization Article 19. She returns to Amnesty after twenty years having previously held the role of Chef de Cabinet for then Secretary General Pierre Sané. As a leading advocate for freedom of expression, a feminist and an anti-racism activist, she pushes out the frontiers of rights through her scholarship and advocacy.

 

Peter Erdelyi is an investigative reporter, editor and media manager from Budapest, Hungary, working at one of Hungary’s last remaining independent media outlets, online news portal 444.hu. He has 20 years of experience in journalism and a reasonable understanding of the media landscape in Hungary and CEE. He is currently a fellow at Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford where he studies user-generated revenue models for online media in Central and Eastern Europe and the Global South.