The story behind World Press Freedom Day.

May 3rd







The idea of marking Press Freedom Day emerged amid the broader struggle for the existence of free and independent media in Africa. In 1991, journalists gathered in Windhoek, Namibia, creating the Windhoek Declaration which declares that a free press is critical for the democratic and sustainable development of society. The text stresses that when media are controlled or censored, the truth does not reach citizens, increasing inequality and authoritarianism. This idea eventually caught the attention of the United Nations General Assembly, which declared World Press Freedom Day on 3 May, the Anniversary of the date when the Windhoek Declaration was adopted.
Location: Windhoek, Namibia

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Strengthening democracy and media freedom and pluralism in Europe.

Image
  While there were hundreds of alerts across Europe in 2021, there were also positive developments that were welcomed by media freedom actors . In the beginning of the year, the European Commission announced the establishment of an Expert group against SLAPPs with a specific mission to advise the Commission on matters related to fighting SLAPPs or supporting the journalists and media outlets that were targeted by them. ECPMF's legal advisor Flutura Kusari is also a part of this group and the EC is expected to propose legislative and non-legislative measures to counter SLAPPs.  The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, announced the details of a new Media Freedom Act during her annual State of the Union speech on 15 September. In that same month, the Commission adopted a Recommendation to Member States to improve the safety of journalists, both on-line and offline . It called for the creation of independent national services to support journalists i...
Read more

The deployment of Invasive technology against journalists and other media actors.

Image
  In 2021, the Fidesz government of Prime Minister Viktor Orban continued its steady erosion of media pluralism. As part of global revelations, an investigative reporting project meanwhile unearthed the surveillance of multiple Hungarian journalists using the Pegasus spyware developed by Israeli spyware firm NSO Group, leading to fresh concerns about the illegal surveillance of journalists and their sources . Hungary was the only country in the EU in which the state intelligence agencies were suspected of tar‐ geting their own nation’s journalists. The 12 alerts recorded on the MapMF plat‐ form, and 47 attacked persons or entities related to media , do not reflect the true scale of the challenges facing media freedom in Hungary, which continued to be among the lowest of the EU member states. Unlike other EU states, however, the state/government was the source of 50% of documeted alerts, indicating the continued pressure by the Fidesz party on independent media.  On 18 July...
Read more

Agenda Programme of the World Press Freedom Day 2025.

Image
  Programme of the World Press Freedom Day Signature Event - 7 May 2025 9:30 - 10:45 - Registration Registration and badge pick up at BOZAR. Networking Breakfast 11:00 - 12:05 - Opening Session High Level Opening Address  H.E. Ms. Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO Director-GeneralVideo-Message from United Nations Secretary-General,  H.E. Mr. Antonio Guterres Ms. Dubravka Šuica, EU Commissioner for Mediterranean [TBC] Mr. Rob Beenders, Minister of Consumer Protection, the fight against Social Fraud, Persons with Disabilities and Equal Opportunities, Belgium Ms. Cieltje Van Achter, Flemish Minister of Brussels and Media Ms. Elisabeth Degryse, Minister-President of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation Video-Message from   Henna Virkkunen, Executive Vice-President for Tech Sovereignty, Security and Democracy, European Commission Master of ceremony:  Annelies Beck, Moderator and Presenter, VRT Show Part 1 Godparents of AI ” - Video contribution by Yoshua Bengio, Turing Award W...
Read more