Remarks at the forum "Constitutional Rights to Freedom of Speech and Publication - 30 years"

Excellencies,

Distinguished representatives from various media outlets in Mongolia,

Ladies and gentlemen,

First, let me offer my sincere congratulations to the people of Mongolia on this remarkable occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Constitution of Mongolia!

This is a special day to commemorate 30 years of Mongolia’s unwavering commitment to democracy, human rights and freedom. Mongolia has long been heralded as a beacon of vibrant and stable democracy in the region.

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The United Nations in Mongolia commends Mongolia’s efforts in strengthening its democratic governance and adhering to the rule of law. This includes free media and freedom of expressions and speech Mongolians enjoy at large, guaranteed by the Constitution of Mongolia in 1992.

Most certainly, free and independent media is “a cornerstone of democratic societies”. Therefore, to safeguard democracy, we need independent and free media as a watchdog of society to render the government more accountable for their people.

Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers”.

Mongolia is legally bound to protect the freedom of expression in accordance with international laws and standards. Article 16 of the Constitution of Mongolia guarantees “Freedom of thought, opinion, expression, speech, press, and peaceful assembly.

In this regard, I would like to reiterate the recommendations by the UN Human Rights Council that encourages Mongolia to take necessary measures to respect freedom of expression and access to information and protect civic space, in accordance with international standards. This will include ensuring that journalists, media workers, and civil society activists are able to practice their activities freely without any fear of undue harassment, punishment, or investigating threats against journalists and media workers, and bringing perpetrators to justice.

I would urge the Mongolian authorities to further commit to do everything in their power to support free, independent, and diverse media and civic space. Representatives of Mongolian media and civil society organisations have expressed their concerns over the lack of laws and policies important to guaranteeing media freedom and expressions of diverse views, free from censorship.

In the recent accounts, we have also been informed on concerns over the shrinking of civic space including peaceful assembly and civic protests due to the restrictive measures related to the curb of the current COVID-19 pandemic.

Therefore, I warmly welcome today’s joint initiative both by the Parliament of Mongolia and the Press Institute as a constructive platform to openly discuss and seek solutions to the current challenges in independent and free media, especially at the age of digitization where we face yet another challenge of misinformation and disinformation or fake news, coined as infodemic.

Before I conclude, I would like to commend the leadership of the Parliament of Mongolia for creating an enabling and favourable legislative environment where Mongolian media and civil society enjoy greater freedom and open public debate and discourse to bring fair and better world for all Mongolians. 

I also sincerely thank the Press Institute’s initiative and strong leadership in building the capacity of media and civil society that significantly contributes to strengthening democratic governance in Mongolia.

Finally, I reiterate here the UN Mongolia’s firm commitment for supporting strong democracy in Mongolia.

Wish you all a very successful forum! Баярлалаа. Сайн сайхныг хүсье.