World Press Freedom Day: UNESCO chief urges renewed commitment to defend journalists
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (PANA) – This year’s commemoration of the World Press Freedom Day should be an opportunity to renew the commitment, within international organisations, to defending journalists and, through them, press freedom, according to Ms Audrey Azoulay, Director-General of UNESCO.
“Freedom of the press is the cornerstone of democratic society. Without a debate of ideas, without verified facts, without diversity of perspectives, democracy is a shadow of itself,” Ms Azoulay has said in a message on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day which is marked annually on 3 May.
“For the international community, it is first and foremost a question of the impunity that still surrounds crimes of which journalists are victims, with nearly nine out of ten murders of journalists going unpunished. This, for instance, is the objective of the United Nations Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity, which UNESCO has been leading for ten years.
“It is also about ensuring that independent media can continue to exist. With the digital revolution, the information landscape and its modes of production and distribution have been radically disrupted, jeopardising the viability of independent professional media,” the head of UNESCO pointed out.
To ensure that information remains a common good in the digital age, Ms Azoulay recalled that Member States, through the Windhoek +30 Declaration of 2021, have undertaken to support independent journalism, ensure greater transparency of online platforms, and develop media and information literacy.
“We will not be able to do this without the actors who now have significant control over access to information: the digital platforms. This is why UNESCO held the “Internet for Trust” conference in February, as an essential step towards the development of principles to regulate digital platforms. This is a fundamental issue, because it involves both protecting freedom of expression and fighting disinformation and hate speech,” she underlined.
The Windhoek Declaration is considered a benchmark for ensuring press freedom around the world. It all began at a seminar in Windhoek in 1991, but the ideas exchanged by African journalists and media professionals acted as a catalyst to encourage press freedom, independence and pluralism in Africa and in other parts of the world.
As the UN Organisation responsible for defending and promoting freedom of expression, media independence and pluralism, UNESCO leads the organisation of World Press Freedom Day each year.
This year’s celebration is particularly special as the international community marks the 30th anniversary of the proclamation of the Day by the United Nations General Assembly. It serves as an occasion to take stock of the global gains for press freedom secured by UNESCO and its partners in the past decades, as well as underline the new risks faced in the digital age.
-0- PANA AR/MA 2May2023
