World Press Freedom Day

On May 6, 2025; From 16:00 – 17:30; A parallel event entitled: "Supporting Journalism under Severe Political Pressure: The Challenges and Opportunities. Organizer: OSCE Venue: Le Poste, Place du Jeu de Balle 62, 1000 Brussels Contact: Aidar Botagarov

On May 6, 2025; From 15:00 – 17:00; A parallel event entitled '' Building Resilient Newsrooms - Developing Protocols to Protect the Safety of Journalists." Organizer: IWMF , supported by UNESCO's International Programme for the Development of Communication Venue: Visit Brussels rue Royale 2-4, 1000 Brussels Register here Contact: Nadine Hoffman

On May 5, 2025 from 14:00-16:00; A parallel event entitled ''Addressing SLAPPs as an increasing threat to media freedom and public interest journalism in Europe." Organizers: Hosted by civil society Coalition Against SLAPPs in Europe (CASE) , OHCHR Regional Office for Europe and the Council of Europe . Venue: Press Club Brussels. Public event but registration required (link to be provided). It’s time to reclaim the shame. It’s time to strip away the facade of legal respectability and expose the aggressive bully tactics underneath. It’s time to show the faces of some of the worst legal bullies in Europe.  WELCOME TO THE GALLERY OF SHAME

On May 5, 2025 from 11:00-12:30; Parallel event entitled ''Access to Information and Media Pluralism in the face of AI and Power Concentration." Organizers: OHCHR and OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media. Venue: UN House Boulevard du Régent 37-40, 1000 Brussels. More information:  Panel Discussion . Contact: Renaud de Villaine .

May 6, 2025 - From 17:00 – 19:30; Parallel event entitled ''Artistic Freedom and Creativity: Navigating the Age of AI in a Volatile World." Organizers: UNESCO , with the support of the UNESCO-Aschberg Programme for Artists and Cultural Professionals (funded by the government of Norway), in collaboration with On the Move . Venue: BIP Meeting Center . Contact: Rosario Soraide . More information here Link to register link

May 6, 2025 - From 9:45 – 12:00, Parallel event entitled ''Protecting Critical Voices – Guidance for Human Rights Impact Assessment (HRIA) on Digital Platforms." Organizers: UNESCO, OHCHR Venue: Square Brussels Convention Center  , The Arc Auditorium, 3rd floor. Contact: Ophelie Leger . Link to register here  

May 6, 2025 - From 09:30 - 11:00 (coffee/tea as of 9.00 am) Panel discussion entitled '' Donor Drought and News Deserts : Towards Joint Solutions to the Global Funding Crisis of Independent Media." Organizers: UNESCO, DW Akademie, International Fund for Public Interest Media , Thomson Reuters Foundation , and Global Forum for Media Development. Venue: BIP Meeting center, Salle des Guichets. Rue Royale 2/4, 1000 Bruxelles, Belgium. Register here . Contact: Saorla McCabe , Lucie Gürtler .

The UNESCO with the  Sociedad Interamericana de Prensa and   AIB news are organizing a session on the viability of the media in Latin America . Follow the conversation of the 2022 #WorldPressFreedomDay Conference.

Internet companies currently share only limited data with media companies. - Greater transparency could help support economic viability of media; The Session bellow examined a draft document on potentially useful data sets held by the platforms .  Panelists : Mr. mliberini and Mrs. martha citlalin , Periodista Directora nacional editorial de OE Menlinea .

The developments described complement other issues related to journalism under digital siege . More transparency by Internet companies such as in the use of “ ad tech ” could help news media with viability issues, as well as with their negotiations for a share in the revenues that are generated through online news appearing on their platforms.  Greater transparency , and better privacy protection , would also advance accountability of the Internet companies , and enhance public understanding of the online ecosystem. In turn, this could lead to greater trust that digital communications do justice to availing reliable content such as free and professional journalism.

SPOTLIGHT ON ARTIFIAL INTELLIGENCE AND FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION: How safety of Journalists, Freedom Of Expression and the Artificial Intelligence interact?  Listen from University of Novisab ( The Creatures Lab ); An International human rights lawyer and more featured speakers on this session organized by the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media during the 2022 #WorldPressFreedomDay Conference

With a general decline in media freedom globally , some countries like Sierra Leone  have shown #commitment to work with media development actors.The target? Ensure a more enabling economic and political environment for media . Join online the 2022 #WorldPressFreedomDay Conference.

  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...