World Press Freedom Day

This year's World Press Freedom Day aims to explore AI's impact on press freedom and the right to freedom of expression , as well as addressing the continued relevance of Information as a Public Good as in the Windhoek+30 Declaration of 2021 ,which has been endorsed with unanimity by UNESCO General Conference. The media landscape has changed significantly since the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed World Press Freedom Day in 1993. The unprecedented use and development of Artificial Intelligence systems are playing a transformative role in journalism and the media, and on press freedom.While the principles of free, independent, and pluralistic media remain crucial, AI's impact on information gathering, processing, and dissemination is profound, presenting both innovative opportunities and profound challenges. AI offers the potential to enhance freedom of expression by democratizing access to information, empowering global communication, and changing the realit...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming the fundamental right to seek, impart and receive information , as well as the journalistic profession . It enhances access to information and processing of it , enabling journalists to handle and process vast amounts of data efficiently and create content more effectively. AI tools can improve fact-checking, data visualization, local and multi-platform adaptation of news content and its translation, streamlining the journalistic process and making information more engaging and accessible. AI also presents risks . It can be used to reproduce misinformation , spread disinformation , amplify online hate speech, and enable ne w forms of censorship . Some actors use AI for mass surveillance of journalists and citizens , creating a chilling effect on freedom of expression. Private platforms increasingly use AI to filter, moderate, and curate content, becoming gatekeepers of information.There's a growing concern that AI might contribute to...

Artificial Intelligence (AI) presents both opportunities and challenges for women journalists. AI can support victims of gender-based violence by streamlining reporting tools and enhancing fairness in digital spaces. These advancements could reduce barriers to reporting abuse and enable faster responses. AI also amplifies existing risks for women journalists in the digital landscape . The UN Commission on the Status of Women has identified technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TFGBV) as a critical global issue, particularly affecting women in public-facing roles like journalism. AI systems can generate deep-fakes, doctored images, and mis/disinformation campaigns aimed at discrediting or intimidating women journalists. These AI-driven attacks jeopardize their safety but also have a chilling effect on their work, potentially limiting public access to information .

AI offers media outlets tools to increase efficiency through task automation, helping newsrooms meet growing demands and remain competitive. However, the financial sustainability of media is becoming more fragile as generative AI platforms repurpose journalistic content without proper compensation, diverting revenue from independent outlets to digital platforms and to AI actors. Among the issues being discussed is fair remuneration for content used by AI systems , with copyright enforcement mechanisms and fair revenue-sharing models. Media outlets are facing how to balance AI use with maintaining good practices and audience trust and engagement . Many have issued codes of conduct stressing respect for audience data, content authenticity, AI use disclosure, transparency, and information integrity.

Artificial Intelligence (AI)  is increasingly influencing the integrity of elections , offering tools for fact-checking and combating disinformation while empowering journalists and voters to promote informed democratic participation . However, it poses risks, as generative AI enables the creation of misleading content like deep-fakes, undermining trust in democratic institutions . Addressing these challenges requires collaboration among governments, media, and civil society.

Broadcast of the  World Press Freedom Day 2024 Conference  held at the Plenary room at the Centro Cultural Gabriela Mistral, Santiago, Chile . Video message on journalists disappeared and executed during the dictatorship in Chile. - Mr. Tawfik Jelassi, Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information, UNESCO - Mr. Alberto Van Klaveren, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Chile - Ms. Camila Vallejo, Ministry General Secretariat of Government, Chile

  Hosted in Chile, this year's Conference is dedicated to the importance of journalism and freedom of expression in the context of the current global environmental crisis . Here you will watch the Opening ceremony with UNESCO Director-General, Audrey Azoulay, President of the Republic of Chile, Gabriel Boric, Michelle Bachelter, former President of Chile and former Executive Director of UN Women, and Mexican actor and activist Gael García Bernal, among others.  The opening will be followed by a first plenary session (10.15am - 11.20am GMT-4) under the theme " No Future without Freedom of Expression and access to information ", with the participation of Maria Ressa, co-founder and CEO of Rappler, Philippines, Fredrick Mugira, Founder Water Journalist Africa, Uganda, Minna-Liina Lind, Deputy Foreign Minister for Global Affairs and Co-chair of the Media Freedom Coalition, Estonia and Gael García Bernal, Actor, producer and environmental activist, moderated by Paloma Ávila Ba...

2024 World Press Freedom Day events in Thailand address media freedom, environmental reporting, and journalism in the dawning era of artificial intelligence. On World Press Freedom Day , 3 May, UNESCO and the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand (FCCT) will co-host a public seminar, ‘Media freedom in Thailand post-election amidst environmental crisis, and the path towards anti-SLAPP Law.’ The on-site and live-streamed event is co-organized by the UNESCO Regional Office in Bangkok and the non-profit independent newspaper Prachatai. The non-governmental organization Reporters sans frontières (Reporters Without Borders) will launch its annual World Press Freedom Index , which will be followed by a panel discussion addressing the state of the information ecosystem and press freedom in Thailand since the May 2023 general elections. Discussion will include reviewing progress made, to date, towards legislation to address the problem of Strategic Litigation Against Public Participation (S...

The top 10 photographs will be displayed at a public exhibition during the World Press Freedom Day 2024 celebration in UNESCO Office in Kathmandu on 3 May 2024. A Press for the Planet: Journalism in the Face of the Environmental Crisis . The 31st edition of World Press Freedom Day highlights the significant role played by the press, journalism, access, and dissemination of information to ensure and secure a sustainable future that respects the rights of individuals and their diversity of voices, as well as gender equality. The Day serves as a platform to bring together key actors and reflect on the fundamental role of journalism and reliable information in protecting our planet and discuss topics, including: The importance of reliable and accurate information, especially that which denounces and investigates the environmental crisis and its effects. Objectives of the Competition: This photography competition aims to celebrate and raise awareness about the vital role of media and jo...

As part of UNESCO’s World Press Freedom Day 2023 , an academic conference will take place at Columbia University in New York on 1 May 2023 as a hybrid event. The academic conference focuses on freedom of expression as a driver for other human rights, linking to UNESCO’s overall theme for World Press Freedom Day 2023. Academia has played an important role in World Press Freedom Day by hosting an academic conference that provides a forum to hear from scholars who research constraints on media freedom in all their complexity. As this is the 30th anniversary of World Press Freedom Day, the first part of this year’s academic conference will provide an opportunity to reflect on and celebrate academia’s contributions to better understanding the challenges of journalism safety and media freedom , as well as looking ahead at how it can contribute to these pressing issues in a future where freedom of expression is being threatened around the world. This interactive workshop will provide an opp...

  The Tow Center for Digital Journalism and Thomson Reuters Foundation (TRF) will share key findings from their recently launched research titled Weaponizing the Law: Attacks on Media Freedom. The research is a first-of-its-kind report that draws on the insights of media law experts and journalists from around the world to provide a global overview of these sweeping threats to a free press. The presentation of the report by Joel Simon, Founding Director of the Journalism Protection Initiative at the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism, will be followed by a high-level discussion with leading media defence experts, researchers and media freedom experts to be moderated by Antonio Zappulla, CEO of TRF, that will focus on identifying future research and data collection needed to map in more detail the scale, nature and geographic reach of these threats and how they impact journalists and the media ecosystem. This ongoing exploration of global trends will be critical to enab...

  Protecting Freedom of Expression through Comparative Global Case Law: Databases to Advance Rights . Location: Satow Room, Lerner Hall, Columbia University. Sponsored by: Columbia GFoE and UNESCO. Speakers: Catalina Botero, Columbia GFoE; Hawley Johnson, Columbia GFoE; Juan Manuel Ospina, Columbia GFoE; Daniel Ospina Celis, Dejusticia; Nelly Chepngetich Rotich, Strathmore University, Natalie Alkiviadou, Future of Free Speech; Alberto Godioli, University of Groningen; Laura Little, Temple University Law School; Raisa Carrillo, Fundación para la Libertad de Prensa; Stephen Townley, Trial Watch, Clooney Foundation for Justice. 9:00 - 10:20 AM. Panel Discussion V - Protecting Freedom of Expression through Comparative Global Case Law, Databases to Advance Rights

  On World Press Freedom Day 2023 , join the High Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom and special guests for the launch of the Report on International Standards related to Blasphemy Laws and Media Freedom. The event is organized together with Columbia University Global Freedom of Expression and co-sponsored by PEN America. The report is authored by Karuna Nundy, member of the High Level Panel, and is the result of close collaboration with leading academic institutions from around the world. It examines national laws r egulating speech that is characterized as ‘blasphemous’ and assesses the compatibility of those laws with media freedom. Reflecting on the right of journalists to operate free from control, censorship and harassment , this Panel will discuss the findings and recommendations of the Report. - 10:45 - 11:55 Panel Discussion VI - Media Freedom in the Face of Blasphemy Laws

On World Press Freedom Day 2023 , join Columbia Global Freedom of Expression, Meta Oversight Board and PEN America for a discussion on Content Moderation, Free Speech and the Eternal Search for Truth. There is little doubt that the internet and social platforms have changed the way we communicate, seek truth and hold others to account around the world. Mis- and disinformation make headlines and have become a sticking point in the debate of whether this change is good or bad. The debate seems hottest in the journalistic sphere. On the 30th anniversary of World Press Freedom Day, this session will explore different approaches to the underlying values of journalistic ethics and integrity on platforms .  How do new regulatory models, like the Oversight Board, approach this through content moderation?  How are different forms of media evolving and adapting?  Are the fundamental rights and values of freedom of expression and a free press still the same? Content Moderation,...

  Freedom of expression is the cornerstone of a democratic system. This event seeks to highlight and share some of the main challenges being debated in the region today in order to achieve the full exercise of this right, both in the traditional media system and on the Internet . The panel will have the participation of national leaders, experts and representatives of Latin American civil society with the aim of exchanging experiences and reflections on the subject, as well as recommendations and proposals for the full exercise of the right to freedom of expression in America. Latina.  The presentations will include the presentation of unpublished research and reports on topics related to: the right of access to information by communities and indigenous peoples;  the challenges of public defenders and other institutions that defend rights in the digital environment; the direct link between freedom of expression and a plural and diverse media system; the viability of i...

  On World Press Freedom Day 2023 , UNESCO will organize a special  anniversary event  at UN headquarters in New York, marking the 30 years since the UN General Assembly’s decision proclaiming an international day for press freedom . On this occasion, the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media will organise the following side events during the anniversary edition of World Press Freedom Day at the UN Headquarters and the Vance Center at New York Bar Association. Side event 1:  Freedom of Expression and Gender Justice . Joint side event with UN Women, UNFPA and the Association for Progressive Communications (APC). 1st May 2023, 16:30 - 18.00 EDT UNFPA (605 Third Avenue New York) At this event, the four international freedom of expression mandate holders from the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the African Commission of Human Rights, and the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights will discuss the multi-stakeholder recom...

Organized by: UNESCO, the Global Network Initiative , the Action Coalition for Meaningful Transparency , the Global Forum for Media Development , Permanent Mission of Denmark to the UN, and Dynamic Coalition on the Sustainability of Journalism and News Media in the digital Age .  Roundtable on access to data, safety of journalists and media viability. - 14:30 - 15:00. Stoy UNESCO and Japan collaborate to expand efforts for Ukrainian media and journalists . Read the OSCE full report on " Safety of Journalists in Conflicts situation. ". For more information, contact: ipdc.secretariat@unesco.org

  In line with the upcoming World Press Freedom Day, the event organized by the UNESCO Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean and the Columbia University Global Freedom of Expression Program aims to address the challenges of freedom of expression . expression and its link with the enjoyment of the remaining rights, in a region where demands and challenges persist for the implementation of human rights standards. The event will focus on the following aspects: Strategy to adopt against speeches that silence or incite hatred against vulnerable groups that suffer structural discrimination in the region; Freedom of expression and social protest in Latin America for the protection and defense of the remaining rights; Progress of the Inter-American Human Rights System in terms of access to information for the search for truth, memory and justice for human rights violations; Milestones of inter-American jurisprudence regarding the link between freedom of expression and the ru...

  When freedom of expression and media freedom are stifled, all of our freedoms are at risk. Freedom of expression, the free flow of information and press freedom are therefore preconditions for the realization of the Sustainable Development Goals of Agenda 2030: without them, we cannot eliminate poverty and hunger, preserve biodiversity and promote sustainable development, or build transparent institutions. They are indispensable in the fight for the rights of minorities and marginalized people, to combat all kinds of discrimination , to build diverse and inclusive civic spaces , and to uphold resilient democracies.

  In 1993, the United Nations General Assembly proclaimed 3 May as World Press Freedom Day . This proclamation marked the beginning of substantial progress towards enabling a free press and freedom of expression around the world – with the proliferation of independent media in many countries and the rise of digital technologies enabling the free flow of information online. Three decades have passed, with advancements in the respect for human rights and in related international frameworks. However, media freedom, safety of journalists and freedom of expression are increasingly under attack, which impacts the realization of other human rights. The international community faces multiple crises; conflicts and violence, persistent socio-economic inequalities driving migration, environmental crises and challenges to the health and wellbeing of people all around the world, while disinformation and misinformation online and offline proliferate with serious impact on the institutions...