A/HRC/RES/45/18 (i) To protect in law and in practice the confidentiality of journalists’ sources, including whistle-blowers, in acknowledgement of the essential role of journalists and those who provide them with information in fostering government accountability and an inclusive and peaceful society, subject only to limited and clearly defined exceptions provided for in national legal frameworks, including judicial authorization, in compliance with States’ obligations under international human rights law; (j) To adopt and implement transparent, clear and expedient laws and policies that provide for the effective disclosure of information held by public authorities, including online, and a general right to request and receive information, for which public access should be granted, except within narrow, proportionate, necessary and clearly defined limitations that comply with international human rights law; (k) To refrain from interference with the use of technologies such as encryption and anonymity tools, and from employing unlawful or arbitrary surveillance techniques, including through hacking; (l) To ensure that targeted surveillance technologies are only used in accordance with the human rights principles of lawfulness, legitimacy, necessity and proportionality, and that legal mechanisms of redress and effective remedies are available for victims of surveillance-related violations and abuses; (m) To promote the availability and accessibility of the broadest possible diversity of media content and the representation of the whole diversity of society in the media, and in this regard to do their utmost to reduce the economic vulnerability of journalists; (n) To cooperate with journalists, the media and civil society organizations to assess the damage that the COVID-19 pandemic is inflicting on the provision of vital information to the public and the sustainability of media environments, and to consider, wherever possible, devising appropriate mechanisms to provide financial support to the media, including local journalism and investigative reporting, and to ensure that support is given without compromising editorial independence; (o) To take measures to prevent sexual harassment and other forms of sexual and gender-based violence, including threats, threats of rape, intimidation and harassment against women journalists, to encourage the reporting of harassment or violence by providing gender-sensitive investigative procedures, to provide adequate support, remedy, reparations and compensation for victims, including psychological support as part of broader efforts to promote and protect the human rights of women, to eliminate gender inequality and to tackle gender-based stereotypes in society, and to prohibit incitement to hatred against women journalists, online and offline, and other forms of abuse and harassment through relevant policy and legal measures that comply with international human rights law; (p) To give full support for and to raise public awareness of the importance of independent, plural and diverse media, online as well as offline, inter alia by government representatives publicly, unequivocally and systematically condemning violence, intimidation, threats and attacks against journalists and media workers and refraining from verbally attacking journalists, inciting hatred against them or distrust towards independent journalists; (q) To establish or enhance information-gathering and monitoring mechanisms, such as databases, to permit the collection, analysis and reporting of concrete quantitative and qualitative disaggregated data on threats, attacks or violence against journalists, and to do their utmost to make data, in accordance with Sustainable Development Goal indicator 16.10.1, available to relevant entities, in particular the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization; (r) To provide for an enabling environment for civil society organizations to contribute to monitor and report cases of violence against the media and other infringements of freedom of expression, to provide assistance to journalists and media workers against wrongful prosecutions, and to advocate for crimes against them to be properly investigated and, where appropriate, for improvement of legal frameworks governing an enabling environment for journalists and media workers; 6