‘Serious concerns remain’ despite reinstatement of journalist Twitter accounts: UN

“Excellent news that journalists are being reinstated Twitter, however critical issues stay,” Volker Turk stated on the platform, insisting “Twitter has a accountability to respect human rights.”

Musk had drawn anger and warnings from the European Union and United Nations after suspending the accounts of greater than half a dozen outstanding journalists from the New York Instances, CNN and the Washington Post, who he accused of endangering his household.

However he all of a sudden introduced late Friday that the accounts could be reinstated.
“The individuals have spoken. Accounts who doxxed my location could have their suspension lifted now,” the Twitter proprietor tweeted.

Turk voiced concern on the approach the determinations have been reached, calling on Musk to “commit to creating selections primarily based on publicly obtainable insurance policies that respect rights, together with free speech. Nothing much less.”

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The newest controversy started when Musk on Wednesday suspended @elonjet, an account that tracked flights of his personal aircraft.

Musk, a self-declared free speech absolutist, stated the transfer was obligatory after a automotive in Los Angeles carrying one among his kids was adopted by “a loopy stalker” and appeared responsible the monitoring of his jet for the incident.

Among the journalists had reported on the affair, together with tweets linking to the suspended @elonjet account, which Musk stated amounted to providing “assassination coordinates” towards him and his household.

In a chat hosted stay on Twitter, Musk had supplied no proof for his declare however instructed a few of the suspended reporters that on Twitter “everybody’s going to be handled the identical”. You are “not particular since you’re a journalist.”

Musk’s transfer to droop the journalists’ accounts had drawn sharp criticism from media organisations, the European Union and United Nations.

The spokesman for UN chief Antonio Guterres referred to as it a “harmful precedent at a time when journalists all around the world are dealing with censorship, bodily threats and even worse.”