..:: MAP OF WAY / openletter-secretary-general ::..

This open letter to the "Secretary-General of the United Nations," an open letter to CPJ, 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 "Secretary-General of the United Nations

[17 February 2024]

Dear Mr. António Guterres,
Secretary-General of the United Nations,

Your opening remarks on the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights 2023 couldn't bring me joy as an advocate of the UDHR.
You illustrated the harsh realities that humanity confronts on the 75th anniversary of the UDHR.
I did not expect an encouraging report about a brighter future for the human family. Such expectations could be reasonable if we took sufficient serious actions on the 50th anniversary of the declaration and even before it, in December 1948.
On December 10, 1998, previous Secretary-General Kofi Annan delivered a keynote address to the General Assembly's plenary session to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR).
If, at that time, the members of the General Assembly took the Declaration seriously and tried to grasp its contents by putting question marks on any words and terms in that document, the world would be different, and the tone of your remarks could be optimistic.

If we want to hear a delighted and hopeful report on the 100th anniversary of the declaration's adoption in 2048, we must start our serious actions as soon as possible. Otherwise, the statements of the Secretary-General of the United Nations in 2048 would be even more hopeless than yours because things will get worse in our Unwise Atmosphere.

On the same day, a few hours before you delivered your remarks on the 75th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, my work on the same document was published —on my website "mapofway.com".
This symmetry was entirely accidental. A few months before that time, I started to arrange my notes on the UDHR, which resulted from contemplating it for a few decades.
I take the synchronicity of my work's publishing and your remarks as an auspicious occasion and ask you and other advocates of the UDHR to break your silence and answer questions that the document puts forward.

To translate the Declaration's words into action, we must first understand the Declaration's full text. We should take the UDHR as a serious document —as I do.

A Profound Grasp of the UDHR is the beginning of the end of human rights violations and leads us toward achieving its goals.
Besides profounding our knowledge about the contents of the UDHR worldwide, we shall protect journalists with an effective legal system.
In other words, taking the UDHR as a serious document and protecting journalists are two obligatory measures which "Exist Strategy" demands.

Whereas I explained my opinion about the contents of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in "The UDHR, A Serious Text", the rest of this letter will be devoted to the Free Press and protecting journalists legally.
The question is: Why should the UN legally protect Journalists worldwide by exerting "Preventive Justice"?

My answer is: According to the first paragraph of the preamble of the UDHR, we are "members of the human family." Thus, as a member of a vast family, everybody must be aware of the rest of their relatives' circumstances, and if one or a few members need help, rush to them for support and aid.
Journalists, as a group of family members, fulfil that task and, besides that mission, reveal the threats which humanity confronts them.
In other words, journalism discloses "Reality" as it is and allows us to change "Reality" to "Truth" and achieve the "larger freedom" that the UDHR offers.

As we learned in Volume One(page 151) of my work, humans' relationship with Reality can differ in 1) Unwisdomness, 2)Anti-wisdomness, and 3) Wisdom:

1. In Unwisdomness:
a. Escape from Reality.
b. Confirmation of Reality and Compromising with it.

2. In Anti-wisdomness:
a. Confirmation of Reality and Compromising with it.
b.Trying to Know Reality as it is and manipulating it for self-interest.

3. In Wisdom:
Trying to Know Reality as it is and changing it into Truth.

"Trying to Know Reality as it is and changing it into Truth" causes us to exert our "Collective Control over Reality" to avoid extinction and enjoy longer lives in happiness.
Thus, the duty of trustworthy journalism is more critical than we assume.

Any effective measure for an Exit Strategy should begin with two acts:
1. Serious study of the UDHR.
2. Providing proper legal support for journalists' security and removing all forms of limitation and suppression.
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 proper study of the UDHR, the profound grasp of its contents and the vast teaching of that document can solve the violation of human rights, including the suppression of journalists.
Thus, providing proper legal support for journalists' security and removing all forms of limitation and suppression converges with the "serious study of the UDHR".
Only well-educated politicians with fully developed personalities —as point two of Article 26 demands— can avoid falling into the "Power, Corruption and Crackdown" trap. Otherwise, unwise rulers are condemned to plunge into the trap of excessive release of their testosterone and dopamine.

Mr Secretary-General, as mentioned above, serious study of the UDHR and providing efficient legal protection for journalists' security are two inevitable measures humanity must start as soon as possible.

As a member of the human family, I am ready to take my share of responsibility and respond to any question related to understanding the UDHR and protecting journalists. Thus, do not hesitate to contact me.

Yours Sincerely,

Bahman Azadfar, Philosopher

[1] International Journalist Day was first established in 2002. After that year, on November 19th of each year, Journalists worldwide should feel more comfortable pursuing their duty. But I don't believe they do so, and Freedom House's report amplifies my pessimism.
FreedomHouse's 2023 report states that global freedom declined for the 17th consecutive year.

[2] I know that "The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 2 November as the 'International Day to End Impunity for Crimes against Journalists' in General Assembly Resolution A/RES/68/163" in 2013. Still, it was another spectacular measure with no tangible achievement of journalists —like other Resolutions before and after that. For instance, five years after that Resolution, on 2 October 2018, Jamal Khashoggi, a well-known journalist and critic of the Saudi government, walked into the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul and disappeared there. Later, Saudi Arabia admitted they killed him in its consulate in Istanbul.
What did happen to Khashoggi's killers?