Shaping a Future at Peace: Promoting Press Freedom for Human Rights, Development, and Security.

 

According to the UNESCO World Trends Report in Freedom of Expression and Media Development(2022-2025), freedom of expression around the world has declined by 10% since 2012, a regression comparable in scale to the most unstable periods of the 20th century (First World War, Second World War, Cold War). This setback is occurring alongside a wide range of interwoven issues: the intensification of armed conflicts (61 active worldwide in 2024); the information manipulation and interference by malicious actors including using AI, weakening trust, shared understanding, and national security; the contraction of civic space marked by a reported 48% increase in efforts to control or restrict media; persistent violence against journalists in a context where 85% of killings remain unpunished; the growing economic fragility of independent media linked to the concentration of over 54% of global advertising revenues within digital platforms; and deep disruptions of information ecosystems driven by digital platforms and artificial intelligence, with 40% of users already relying on AI to create or modify content. These deteriorating conditions have led to an estimated 63% increase in self-censorship since 2012, driven by fear of reprisals, online harassment, judicial intimidation, and economic pressure. Yet, responses remain fragmented across policy, technology, security, and development domains. Where independent journalism weakens, societies become more exposed to disinformation, polarization, manipulation, and violence, particularly in environments where nearly one-third of the world’s population remains offline, limiting equitable access to public interest information. Press freedom and independent journalism are not sectoral issues. They are forces for the future and cross-cutting enablers of peace, resilience and democratic governance. By fostering access to reliable information, accountability, dialogue, and trust, they are key to peace, economic recovery, sustainable development, and human rights. The event and key stakeholders World Press Freedom Day (WPFD) 2026 offers a critical moment to reaffirm freedom of expression both as a normative and empirical lever for shaping the future of information societies. Hosted in Lusaka alongside RightsCon 2026, the WPFD 2026 will bring together press freedom advocates and digital rights communities at a time when the boundaries between journalism, technology, civic space, and human rights are increasingly intertwined. It will enable cross-fertilization of ideas, solutions and approaches – including gender-responsive perspectives – between journalists, digital rights advocates, technologists, policy makers, regulators, civil society organizations, academia, researchers, educators, youth leaders and content creators. This convergence offers a platform to move beyond diagnosis toward coordinated action, aligning journalism, technology (including AI), and human rights actors around practical ways to strengthen information ecosystems for the future.

The theme “Shaping a Future at Peace” reflects this idea. This can only be achieved by the quality, diversity, inclusiveness, and integrity of information ecosystems. Journalism, when free, safe, and sustainable, contributes to conflict prevention, informed public debate, social cohesion, and democratic governance. While it is important to remember that when journalism is weakened, peace, sustainable development, and human rights are structurally compromised, World Press Freedom Day 2026 will take a forward-looking approach, offering the press freedom community the opportunity to formulate solutions for information as a public good. Why Lusaka, Zambia Hosting World Press Freedom Day 2026 in Lusaka highlights the central role of Africa and the Global South in shaping the past and future of information ecosystems. since the milestone declaration of Windhoek 1991. Southern African democratic trajectories provide a meaningful context to examine press freedom as a driver of peace, economic development, and social cohesion. Holding WPFD 2026 in Lusaka also reinforces UNESCO’s Priority Africa. Key Pillars Drawing on the global trends identified by the UNESCO’s report, World Press Freedom Day 2026 will focus on three interlinked pillars that address structural risks and forward-looking solutions: 1. Press Freedom, Peace, Security and Economic Development Examine the role of independent journalism as a condition of trust, shared understanding, economic development and national security, in particular in contexts of conflicts, crisis, recovery, and peacebuilding, recognizing that protecting journalists, in particular women journalists, is inseparable from protecting societies’ right to information. 2. Digital Transformation, Artificial Intelligence, and Information Integrity Analyze how digital platforms, algorithms, artificial intelligence, and new information actors reshape freedom of expression, media independence, and public trust, and how both media and information literacy and governance frameworks grounded in human rights and gender equality can respond to these transformations. 3. Media Viability, Pluralism and Inclusion Explore pathways to viable, independent, and pluralistic media ecosystems in the digital age, including support to local and public interest media, responses to platform dominance and adaptation to digital transformation. Recall that these pathways are key for advancing gender equality, including marginalized voices, and engaging young audiences.

Objectives World Press Freedom Day 2026 is expected to contribute to concrete follow-up beyond the event itself, including the reaffirmation of commitments contained in the Windhoek+30 Declaration on Information as a Public Good, the articulation of shared policy orientations on digital governance, artificial intelligence, and journalist safety aligned with international human rights standards, the launch of cross-sector initiatives in synergy with RightsCon, practical guidance on media viability and sustainability with a focus on local and public-interest media, and follow-up through UNESCO’s networks and programmes. In this wake, WPFD 2026 aims to deliver practical orientations and shared commitments to: • Reaffirm press freedom and freedom of expression as essential foundations for peace, development, and security, and articulate their implications for policy and practice. • Ground future-oriented debates in UNESCO’s normative mandate and evidence-based global trends to inform concrete strategic direction. • Strengthen journalist safety and the fight against impunity, including in digital environments and with specific attention to gender-based threats, by identifying priority actions and areas for cooperation. • Advance human rights–based digital governance and information integrity, including through policy, regulatory, and accountability approaches addressing platforms, algorithms, and artificial intelligence, while safeguarding freedom of expression, and by fostering practical cooperation and shared policy guidance among stakeholders. • Leverage media and information literacy as a strategic response to disinformation, information manipulation, and polarization, strengthening citizens’ capacity to access, assess, and engage with information in digital environments. • Highlight the economic and governance value of supporting independent media, (exposing corruption, illicit financial flows, and tax evasion) demonstrating how journalism contributes to economic accountability and development outcomes. • Leverage the convergence with RightsCon to foster dialogue and joint approaches between press freedom and digital rights communities. • Promote viable, pluralistic, and inclusive information ecosystems that can sustain public interest journalism, advance gender-equality, amplify marginalized voices, and engage young audiences in the digital age. • Encourage renewed multi-stakeholder cooperation among states, media, platforms, civil society, academia, and technology actors.

By reaffirming freedom of expression as a core public good and by engaging both journalism and digital rights communities, WPFD 2026 will contribute to shaping a future in which information supports peace, human rights, and sustainable development. Collectively these objectives aim to contribute to actionable follow-up by participants and stakeholders beyond World Press Freedom Day 2026. 

Expected outcome - Lusaka Call to Action on the Future of Journalism, reiterating and reinforcing the principles enshrined in the Windhoek +30 Declaration and emerging issues.