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Amal Clooney is a celebrated human rights lawyer with many achievements to her name, and adding to those is her new powerful position in the UK Foreign Office. Appointed by UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt, Clooney will serve as the Special Envoy on Media Freedom and Co-Chair of the High Level Panel of Legal Experts.
Breaking: Foreign Secretary @Jeremy_Hunt appoints International human rights lawyer Amal Clooney as his Special Envoy on Media Freedom and Chair of a new panel of legal experts. #DefendMediaFreedom pic.twitter.com/exaW1YOrrA
— Foreign Office 🇬🇧 (@foreignoffice) April 5, 2019
“Through my legal work defending journalists I have seen first-hand the ways in which reporters are being targeted and imprisoned in an effort to silence them and prevent a free media,” Clooney said in a statement.
Taking on her new role, Clooney will head a panel of legal experts that will check laws that keep journalists from performing their duties, ensure media freedom and “strengthen legal mechanisms to protect journalists,” according to the UK Foreign Office statement.
The UK and Canada have launched a global campaign to #DefendMediaFreedom and shine a spotlight on media abuses.
Today @Jeremy_Hunt, @cafreeland and Special Envoy on Media Freedom Amal Clooney discussed how we can reverse the trend of violence against journalists. pic.twitter.com/daK3a6hYr7
— Foreign Office 🇬🇧 (@foreignoffice) April 5, 2019
Clooney who is passionate about this initiative said, “It has never been more dangerous to report the news. Targeting journalists undermines democracy and impedes our ability to hold the powerful to account and it allows countless human rights abuses to take place in the dark. Those with a pen in their hand should not feel a noose round their neck.”
Earlier this year, the human rights lawyer teamed up with Prince Charles for his youth charity, the Prince’s Trust and even had the Female Empowerment Award named after her.
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