The International Federation of Journalists today called on the World Intellectual Property Organisation (WIPO) to recognise on its World Intellectual Property Day that it must protect the right of authors to maintain moral and financial control of their work.

The IFJ is concerned about moves at WIPO to introduce protection for webcasters’ organizations in a broadcasting treaty proposal that it will discuss next week in Geneva. The proposed regulation would challenge creators’ rights over the broadcasted content.

 “Webcasting is still developing and is a form of media still unregulated, unlike traditional forms of broadcasting,” the IFJ said. “Although we welcome the development of new forms of communications over the Internet, we fear that WIPO delegations could go too far and grant webcasters rights over what they transmit that would deny journalists the right to control the content they create.”

The IFJ calls on WIPO to support safeguards that ensure authors’ rights receive strong protection everywhere in the world. These safeguards must ensure good working conditions and remuneration for journalists including when their work is being reused and protect the authenticity and veracity of information.

“We need to strike a balance between embracing new technological developments in the media sector and ensuring strong authors’ rights’ protection,” the IFJ said. “Today WIPO is calling attention to the importance of intellectual property rights but it must first and foremost support journalists, photographers and creators at large in the fight to control and benefit from the works they produce.”