..:: MAP OF WAY / open letter-CPJ::..

This open letter to CPJ, an open letter to the "Secretary-General of the United Nations," and "Exit Strategy" convey three aspects of the same problem with various details. I recommend the addressee of one text consider the other texts.

An open letter to the Committee to Protect Journalists(CPJ)

[19 February 2024]

Dear Members of the Committee,

Violation of any human everywhere makes me sad and outraged Emotionally.
Additionally, I sympathise with [True] Journalists. Their safety has always been my concern because I worked as a journalist and yet have journalist friends. Furthermore, I lost one of my best friends, the journalist Iskandar Khatloni, in 2000, who was murdered in Moscow, Russia, when he worked for "Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty" and covered the Second Chechen War.
Beyond these facts, I want to consider journalists' safety in a larger context than my private feelings and empathy.

Despite all efforts from the journalists, their advocates, and the United Nations, the situation seems worse than it was a few decades ago. I suppose it is time to change the actual course and take preventive measures instead of seeking justice —which doesn't exist— for assassinated or suppressed journalists.
The non-existence of justice is a Reality we confront, and everybody, especially journalists, must see that as it is.
If you suppose there is "Justice" somewhere, it is a delusion; if you see it, that is an illusion.
What does justice mean for journalists who were assassinated because they were fulfilling their duties?
Justice means keeping a "Balance" between the rights of humans through prevention —avoiding "Imbalance" between the rights.

If prevention (Preventive Justice) doesn't work, recovery measures (Compensatory Justice) shall intervene and retrieve the balance between the rights of humans.
Until a human is alive, he can urge "Preventive Justice" or, when encountering injustice, demand "Compensatory Justice".

"Right to Life" is the primary right of a human, and other rights are subsets of the "Right to Life".
When a man loses his "Right to Life", he has no more rights to be protected or compensated.
After the assassination of a journalist, you and I can demand punishment for murder(s) to stop him from doing it again and send a message to others to avoid thinking about killing a journalist because it will be answered with punishment.
But such a punishment, even a life sentence for a killer, cannot be called justice because nobody can give back an assassinated journalist's "Right to Life" to him again.

A chronic philosophical sickness has caused us not to understand the meaning of justice and its relationship with order and law.
This is a self-evidence that Scholastic Philosophy does not define justice.
How can you achieve justice when you don't know "what justice is" or "where you can find it"?
Studying my books gives you sufficient philosophical knowledge to distinguish the abstract concepts from each other —for instance, "Law" from "Non-law" and "Justice" from "Legal Revenge".
If you have not time, at least consider the more than 70 definitions on my website and study "The UDHR, A Serious Text", which contains more abstract definitions.
Also, the following explanations can help journalists consider their position in the human community from another aspect and demand their right to "the rule of law" as a vital institute in the human family.

True Law is the regulator of the relationship among humans and between humanity and nature according to "Order" and "Preventive Justice".
"Order" means everyone accepts and respects his and others' rights and takes his place in society according to his talents and abilities.
If such "Order" works, a type of balance between rights emerges that deserves to be called "Preventive Justice".
True Law as the regulator is based on a primary regulator named "Morality", which is born with us in the form of "Innate Morality".

An appropriate education must cause the "full development of the human personality" —as Article 26 of the UDHR demands.
Such an education evolves "Innate Morality" into "Developed Morality" or "Secular Moral Values".

A lawmaker must be profoundly in touch with moral values to fulfil his duty as a medium between "Developed Morality" and the needed law for a new situation in the human community. Otherwise, the result of his effort would be a non-law.
Thus, a lawmaker should be equipped with morality and live in a moral atmosphere to crystalise moral values in law. The question is:
How can a lawmaker legislate a True Law according to moral values when he has no morality?

Of course, lawmakers claim morality, but if one has something, he should show or at least describe it. For instance, I have morality, and not only did I define it, but I also published my moral values and shared them with others. [See Secular Moral Values]

Proper education is necessary to be a true lawmaker. Still, such an education could be helpful if a person has the talent to be a lawmaker.
To be a conscientious lawmaker, a true politician must enjoy a particular talent or TESI (Talent for Extraordinary Sensitivity to Injustice).

The politicians who rule the world neither have TESI nor received a proper education that gives them "full development of the human personality".
Of course, the rulers govern through law, but in their mindset, "Order" means everyone sits in a pre-determined place and does the assigned vocation the rulers decided.
Such an "Order" that they will impose on us is "Real Order" or, in other words, "Disorder". [See the Odd Relationship of Reality with Truth]

True Journalists' problem is they cannot accept the offered place and obey the rulers' order despite this fact: succumbing to the suggested order guarantees their lives, jobs and incomes.
True Journalists know that alleged journalists, from Edward Bernays to Boris Johnson, serve the Establishment's interests and enjoy their lives. Meanwhile, the share of many True Journalists, especially in non-democratic countries, has been suppressed.

Extraordinary Sensitivity to Injustice is a fatal talent for true journalists, jurists, politicians or philosophers. For such a destructive characteristic of TESI, I cannot say one enjoys it because it brings pain and agony to its owner. Thus, it would not be wrong to say that a man suffers from Talent for Extraordinary Sensitivity to Injustice.

The tragic aspect of TESI is that those affected by that talent often don't know they suffer from it.
I confess that I am suffering from TESI, and only after a few decades of philosophical research did I discover it.
During my life, a few times, I tried to ignore my Extraordinary Sensitivity to Injustice, but I failed. Something inside me drives me to do something despite my own interests.
In retrospect, I can understand that TESI was the reason for many of my behaviours. Also, knowing the effect of TESI causes, I understand the manners of other affected persons. For instance, it is understandable to me why journalist Dominic Phillips(slain in Brazil in 2022) went and was murdered even though he was threatened not to return to the Amazon days before he was killed.
For people affected by TESI, commitment to Truth is a priority beyond their safety and life. Such a manner is beyond grasping for those who do not suffer from TESI.

My case is another example. I participated in the Revolution of 1978-79 in Iran. Soon, I found I made a mistake. I accepted my wrongdoing and condemned myself to understand what wisdom is.
I knew university philosophy departments could not answer my questions. I needed money for my own research. So, I started a money-transferring business in Sweden.
In that business, I discovered a lot of flaws in the banking system, which could increase crimes in Sweden. I reported the flaws, but no authorities were concerned.
Despite Sweden's politicians' dislike, I continued my efforts because I felt the people of Sweden would pay expensively for authorities' neglect.
I left nothing to chance while I fought against money laundering for 23 years(1991-2014). At last, in September 2014, they arrested me and hospitalised me in a mental hospital in Stockholm. The authorities' tactic didn't work because hospital staff, despite their colleagues in the Soviet Union, released me on the same day.
Then, the Establishment revenged me. They destroyed my economy by shutting my company in 2019 with childish excuses.

If I ignored the flaws and, instead of starting to criticise authorities and banks, tried to take advantage of the lack, nobody would disturb me. I could earn sufficient money to hire some assistants for the philosophical studies that I needed severely such help.

As you can see, the Establishment in Sweden offered me an Order that provided my interests, but I refused.
The people without TESI cannot understand my manner as they cannot grasp the behaviour of Dominic Phillips.

To me, what made the soaring presence of Sensitivity to Injustice bearable in these years was the hope that one day, my work with philosophy would reach a place where I could challenge the Real System. So, I learned to control the volcano's eruption of fury that any injustice caused and conduct its energy toward developing my philosophy.
But other people with TESI were not as lucky as me. In "Exit Strategy", I named David Buckel, a prominent US lawyer who set himself on fire in a climate protest in 2018.
Two years later, in 2020, Irina Slavina, a Russian journalist, set herself on fire in protest against Realpolitik. She, like David Buckel, killed herself because she couldn't bear the actual order.
In her last post on Facebook, Irina wrote: "I ask you to blame the Russian Federation for my death."

David Buckel, Irina Slavina, me and many others who are suffering from Talent for Extraordinary Sensitivity to Injustice should either commit suicide or imply TESI as aptitude and overthrow the Real System and replace it with the True System through two measures:
1. Serious study of the UDHR.
2. Providing proper legal support for journalists' security and removing all forms of limitation and suppression.
Abrogation of impunity is a priority in providing proper legal support for journalists' security.

The reason behind the death of David Buckel and Irina Slavina is the Real System, not climate change nor the Russian Federation's bullying.

I hope my fellow humans with TESI choose to fight instead of giving up.
We are many. I know this because I see humans with TESI everywhere.
Now, I can recognise humans with Talent for Extraordinary Sensitivity to Injustice and distinguish them from people without any Sensitivity to Injustice.

My journalist friends shall demand the rule of law and emphasis on it. Journalists have the right to be protected by an effective system that guarantees their security everywhere.

Anyone in any government rank, anywhere, must know a journalist can put question marks on anything and critique everyone without hindrance.
Abrogation of impunity exposes powerful men to lawsuits and makes them responsible if they ignore the journalists' rights and cause trouble to journalists.

I wrote to Mr António Guterres, Secretary-General of the United Nations:
[The beginning of the quotation from the open letter to the United Nations Secretary-General]
The Global Community shall give journalists free hands to do their tasks and disclose Reality.

Free journalism is a barometer of freedom and accepting and respecting human rights.
Where journalists cannot enjoy "freedom of speech" and "freedom from fear"—as the UDHR asserts— the ordinary people cannot have them.

Besides rendering objective news and revealing "Reality as it is", "True Journalism" through criticism leads humanity toward Collective Wisdom.

In the book "The Question and Criticism" —the second of Six Volumes— I explained the importance of questioning and criticism. I proved how Critique is essential to staying alive and avoiding extinction.

"Criticism is a request(question) designed by man's mind for judgment and change.
Criticism is the highest form of revising that can hold the "Balance" in an individual human entity, among humans, and at last, between humanity and nature." [Volume 2, page 80]

The existence of journalism as a foundation in Humanity is a chance, and their critiques are a gift for us. The journalists' questioning and criticism increase our "Wise Knowledge".
Who dares to deny the role of questioning and criticism in enhancing our Knowledge?
"Like Scientific Knowledge —which gives us the potential to forecast a hurricane from its beginning— Wise Knowledge allows us to foresee other storms threatening humanity. The disasters include war, climate change, biodiversity loss, and land degradation." [Volume 2, Page 94]

The lack of Criticism is fatal because that flaw causes us to remain Unwise and cannot forecast imminent threats.
"Unwisdom makes the human blind and deaf and sends him back to the beginning of the evolution chain to a "Primitive Situation" where a living organism, because of lack of eyes, was forced to bump into an obstacle and, after bumping, changed its course." [Volume 2, Page 92]

Daily, journalists worldwide take significant risks to report the truth, put questions forward, and bring wrongdoings to light.

Defending the media from attacks on their independence and protecting journalists from various threats and dangers demand more than measures that have proved their inefficiency, like "International Journalist Day."
Two international days are dedicated to journalists:
1. World Press Freedom Day: This day is celebrated every year on May 3rd. It is a day to recognise the importance of press freedom and to call for an end to attacks on journalists.
2. International Journalist Day: This day is celebrated every year on November 19th. It is a day to remember journalists who have been killed in the line of duty and to pay tribute to their work.

By "superficial gestures" or "showy actions", we cannot protect journalists from suppression and killing.
Mere honouring journalists who have lost their lives cannot stop the brutality against alive journalists.

Two international days dedicated to journalists are visually or perceptually impressive but have no depth or substance. Such spectacular measures make those days useless for protecting journalists effectively. [1]

With a public relations stunt rather than a genuine attempt to address the problem, the human family cannot provide safety for its ears and eyes(journalists).
Only by legal measures, the "Rule of Law" and the nullification of political leaders' impunity, can journalists feel secure and fulfil their duty.[2]

We must pave the way toward wisdom by doing something as soon as possible to reduce the expense of questioning and critique to zero cost for journalists.
On the other hand, we shall soar so much the price of suppression of the journalists for "The Establishment" that they lose their courage to make trouble for the questioners.
An International Court by an international police force under its command can make journalists' crackdown costly for human rights violators.
Until we, whether as human rights advocators or journalists, only condemn the violation of journalists' rights verbally, reducing journalists' crackdown is a vain expectation.
Espionage, sedition, subversion, treason, corruption, extortion, fraud and tax evasion are among the labels that the governments impose on journalists and deprive them of their freedom or even from life.

The bitter reality is the legal defenceless position of journalists exposes them to any label. The work of journalists often puts them at specific risk of intimidation, harassment and violence.

Arresting any journalist anywhere and for any reason should be reported to the International Court and considered by an independent prosecuting attorney. The International Court must be assured that accusing and arresting a journalist is not a conspiracy to silence the journalist or get revenge on her or him.

Do we expect a political apparatus that violates journalists' rights and protects itself by impunity, nullifies its privilege, and exposes itself to demise?
If we have such an expectation, we don't know the mechanism that makes unwise politicians irresponsible and indifferent to humans' pains and agonies.
We should know the chemical effects of hormones on ignorant politicians and hormones' roles in deforming politicians' behaviour.

Power, Corruption, and Crackdown have complicated relationships and inseparable interactions that could be explained by science and scientific methods.
Wisdom has its lessons. It teaches us to solve a problem by scientific methods. A wise person shall try to understand why the problem occurs.
A wise person must discover why and under which circumstances that problem appeared.
We can only cut the relationship between Political Power and crackdown by understanding the mechanism that causes powerful men to use suppression.
Until the rulers of human societies are unwise, they are susceptible to misusing their power and violating human rights.
"Power, Corruption and Crackdown", as a part of Volume Two, spotlights the drug-like effect of power on unwise rulers.

Neither the UDHR's emphasis on "freedom of speech" and "freedom from fear" nor Resolutions like A/RES/68/163 can protect journalists from jailing and killing.
[The end of the quotation from the open letter to the United Nations Secretary-General]

In the abrogation of impunity, ordinary humans gain more than journalists. People achieve the Good Governance that Realpolitik Governments cannot provide.
Nullification of impunity as Resolution A/RES/68/163 demands for protecting journalists cannot be executed internationally unless it is accepted at the national echelon.
As a citizen of Sweden, I cannot suit the politicians who caused Sweden to become the battlefield of rival criminal gangs. I know how it happened. I have evidence proving their neglect, but I cannot do anything because the politicians who took my vote and tax can ignore my questions and remain silent. A non-law gives them impunity and allows the politicians to stay irresponsible.
The only possibility for me is to participate in the general election and replace this group of irresponsible politicians with another group of unaccountable politicians.
Sweden's politicians who enjoy impunity have no passion for abrogating impunity at the international level.
Why should Sweden's Prime Minister support the nullification of impunity of Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and permit a group of independent judges to question the Prince for the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi?
Abrogation of impunity, whether at the level of a country or the international grade, in the case of a sitting statesman, has a domino-like effect and will be extended to the whole world.

As a good start for exiting the troublesome situation worldwide, any activist can open a case and demand authorities' accountability by abrogating their impunity.
Journalists should be alert of any such case that targets abrogation of impunity and cover it to share its news with others.
Even the defeat of a case teaches others sufficient lessons to demand justice more effectively.
Any case against impunity can inspire others to do the same.
I will try to do so in Sweden at the first opportunity.

With Unwavering Commitment,

Bahman Azadfar