AMID persistent threats to journalists and press freedoms worldwide, Jamaica will tomorrow host an international gathering of 150 media experts, seasoned journalists, and high-ranking officials who will discuss ways to bolster press freedoms.

The two-day conference, coinciding with the 10th anniversary of World Press Freedom Day on May 3, will explore ways to reduce impunity for crimes against journalists and ensure press freedoms, according to Mogens Schmidt of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

UNESCO is sponsoring the event at the Jamaica Conference Centre, whose main theme is: “Unpunished Crimes against Journalists: A strategy for Reducing Impunity.”

“There is no full democracy without freedom of the press,” said Schmidt, explaining that World Press Freedom Day was created to attract attention to ongoing violations against press freedoms.

Last year, more than 20 journalists died in the line of work, Schmidt told a new sconference at UNESCO’s Kingston office yesterday.

In addition, nine journalists died in Afghanistan and at least nine in Iraq, prompting UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura to repeatedly call on belligerents to treat journalists as civilians in accordance with international treaties.

Matsuura will be among participants from Asia, the Americans, and Europe who will attend the conference, the first ever held in the Caribbean.

In the Caribbean, Cuba ranks as the most repressive country for journalists followed by Haiti, said Schmidt. He noted UNESCO has constantly urged governments to prosecute those who intimidate and attack journalists.

“Seventy to 80 per cent of all crimes against journalist are never brought to court,” he said.

At least two Haitian journalists will attend the conference, but none will attend from Cuba.

Last month, Cuba meted out prison sentences of up to 28 years to 78 pro-democracy advocates, and this included 28 journalist, who received the stiffest sentences for “mercenary activities and other acts against the independence and territorial integrity of the Cuban state.”

Jamaica is considered a safe place for journalist with a healthy free press, and that’s one reason Jamaica was selected to host the conference.

In the Americas, Schmidt identified Colombia as the most dangerous place for journalists. The South American nation is engulfed by a bloody civil war, pitting leftist narco-guerrillas against right-wing death squads and Colombia’s military.

Over the past decade, 366 journalists were killed worldwide while carrying out their duties, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists, an advocacy group.

Six years ago, UNESCO’s member states adopted a resolution to remove any statute of limitations on crimes against persons that were “perpetrated to prevent the exercise of freedom of information and expression or when their purpose is the obstruction of justice.”

During the conference, an Israeli journalist, Amira Hass, will be awarded the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize. Hass is the first and only journalist living in the Palestinian territories, and she has earned praise for her compassionate accounts for the Ha’aretz newspaper about the hardships suffered by Palestinians, despite restrictions imposed by Israeli and Palestinian authorities.