PRESS FREEDOM DAY:    A CELEBRATION OF OUR DEMOCRATIC PRINCIPLES

                             A statement by Thomas S. Saras, President

                           Ethnic Press and Media Council of Canada

 As we gather today to celebrate the world “freedom of the Press” day, our thoughts are going to all those of our colleagues who suffer under the tyrannical oppression of governments and rulers, around the world, who hate the free expression and the Press.

By free Press we mean a press which is untrammeled by prejudice and unfettered by selfish bias, which will serve no other cause but that of the truth and which will recognize no master other than justice.

It is true that no democracy can survive for a long time if do not accept as fundamental of its very existence the recognition of the right of Free Press.

This is also one of the objectives of democracy and peace, due to the fact that we will never have a completely stable world without freedom of knowledge and freedom of information.

In a Country, as ours, where the population stems from many races and tongues, it is obvious that the members of the Ethnic Press of Canada, are part of the fabric of this great industry of the Canadian family of communicators, most of the times struggling to keep alive the tradition and the ethics of our profession.

I take this opportunity to tell you that most of them are daily under the attack of many elements of their communities and also feel the oppression upon them by the interest groups who dominate the various Canadian communities.

The late Tara Sing Hayer, is an example of this reality, as he dedicated himself in the real service of his community.

His example is not the only one, our colleague Zahra Kazemi, gave her life in the service of the people and the community she loved and believed.

Those are only two examples of what many of our members are facing in their daily struggle for survival. Economic and professional survival.

This is one of the reasons of the importance for the recognition of the services offered by the members of the Ethnic Press, as equal partners in a free and liberal democracy, without ignorance and prejudice.

It is important that the hole industry and the people of this nation consider together, along with the administration their special problems in order that these problems may find expression for the benefit of all, but firstly for the sake of our democracy.

All of us are born to freedom, and believe in freedom, and live and work for freedom, willing to fight to maintain freedom of thoughts and expression all over the world.

It is a struggle who increase the stature of mankind and the dignity of human life and the society in general. It is a mission, according to J.F.Kennedy, “to create a new social order, founded on liberty and justice, in which men are the masters of their fate, in which states are the servants of their citizens and in which all men and women can share better life for themselves and their children.”