On eve of the G20 Riyadh summit, RSF calls for public support to secure the release of jailed journalists in Saudi Arabia
On the eve of the 21-22 November G20 summit hosted virtually in Riyadh, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is highlighting the plight of 34 journalists who remain unjustly jailed in Saudi Arabia, calling for public support to urge G20 leaders to take action to secure their release and improve the press freedom climate in the country.
Following months of direct advocacy with G20 states and a public “50 day clock” and accompanying petition, RSF is launching the last phase of its campaign to secure the release of jailed journalists and press freedom improvements before Saudi Arabia’s G20 presidency comes to an end.
RSF is calling for international public support to hijack the official #G20SaudiArabia hashtag with messages and images in support of the country’s 34 unjustly jailed journalists. Supporters are asked to sign up via the crowdspeaking platform Postspeaker, which will post a unified message from their social media accounts at a set time to mark the opening of the Riyadh summit.
Please invite others to participate via this link!: https://pstsp.kr/eve9qCkeq
From 21 November at 8:00 am CET, you can tweet directly via this button:
You can also download the GIF to add to your tweet.
“So far G20 leaders have not sufficiently responded to our call for concrete action to secure the release of jailed journalists in Saudi Arabia before the Riyadh summit. Now we need public support to show that the international community will not tolerate business as usual with the Saudi government while it perpetuates serious press freedom violations. Please sign up to our crowdspeaking campaign in this last stretch before the summit opens,” said Christophe Deloire, RSF’s Secretary-General.
The crowdspeaking message will be accompanied by an image - to be released with a corresponding GIF - featuring the faces of jailed Saudi journalists superimposed in a “family photo” style shot of the G20 leaders. The GIF has been developed in partnership with French advertising agency BETC.
In addition, RSF continues to release targeted calls on individual G20 leaders not to engage in business as usual, with the UK and Spanish Prime Ministers Boris Johnson and Pedro Sanchez highlighted so far. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, French President Emmanuel Macron and German Chancellor Angela Merkel will be featured in the coming days.
Saudi Arabia is ranked 170th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2020 World Press Freedom Index. RSF took an unprecedented press freedom mission to the country in 2019 in an attempt to secure the releases of jailed journalists.
India
