World Press Freedom Day

  On Monday, 04 May 2026, from 14:40 - 15:30 - PLENARY III - Media Viability, Pluralism and Inclusion. This panel explores pathways to viable, independent, and diverse media ecosystems, including support to local and community media, gender equality, inclusion of marginalized voices, and policies that strengthen long-term resilience. Speakers Dr Joe Ageyo, Editor in Chief, Nation Media Group. Ms Susan Makore, Managing Director of the Global Women in News Team, World Association of News Publishers (WAN-IFRA). H.E. Ms Karolina Stasiak, Ambassador of the European Union to Zambia and COMESA H.E. Mr Takehiro Kano, Ambassador, Permanent Delegate of Japan to UNESCO and Chair of the International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) Moderator:  Mr. Carlos Van Meek, Deputy Executive Director of Editorial, Digital Division, Al Jazeera  Q&A  15:30 - 15:45 - Coffee Break 

  On Monday 04 May 2026; from 14:00 - 14:40 - PLENARY II - Digital Transformation, Artificial Intelligence, and Information Integrity This panel analyzes how digital platforms, algorithms, artificial intelligence, and new information actors reshape freedom of expression, media independence, and public trust and how governance frameworks grounded in human rights can respond to these transformations. Dr Tabani Moyo, Regional Director of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (MISA), member of the African Union’s Working Group on Artificial Intelligence Ms Tracy Manners, Deputy Vice President, Director of Global Affairs, Meta Oversight Board Ms Juliet Nanfuka, Researcher, Technology, Society & Power CIPESA Moderator: Ms. Teldah Mawarire, Media & digital expert Q&A

  On Monday May 04; 2026, from 11:50 - 12:35 - PLENARY I - Press Freedom, Peace, Security and Economic Development. This panel examines the importance of journalism in conflict, crisis, recovery, and peacebuilding contexts , including “zones of silence,” journalist safety, and the fight against impunity, recognizing that protecting journalists is inseparable from protecting societies’ right to information . H.E. Mr Churchill Ewumbue-Monono, Ambassador of Cameroon to Ethiopia and Djibouti, Permanent Representative to the African Union and the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa. Mr Gilbert Sendugwa, Executive Director, Africa Freedom of Information. Dr Phathiswa Magopeni Tshangana, Executive Director, Press Council of South Africa & Chairperson of NIMCA. Dr Vera Slavtcheva-Petkova, Reader in Global Journalism and Media, University of Liverpool. Mr Andrew Dabalen, Chief Economist for Africa, World Bank video. Moderator: Ms. Misako Ito, Regional Adviser for Communicati...

  Tuesday, 6 th  May 2025; Arrival and networking (tea and coffee provided):  1330 – 1400; Presentation and Panel Discussion:  1400 – 1530. Location:  Egmont Palace, Brussels, Belgium. Journalists should be able to rely on the law to protect them against threats and attacks – but increasingly, laws are being used to suppress independent journalism, including laws that have little to do with freedom of expression. Building on the ongoing work of the Media Freedom Coalition, a partnership of governments that promotes media freedom alongside civil society organisations, a panel of legal experts, and UNESCO, this session will ask: how can governments and other actors promote accountability for crimes against journalists, and fair trials when journalists themselves are charged with crimes? The session will feature case studies of initiatives such as trial monitoring by embassy representatives, recent research into a proposed international task force to investigate c...

Panel discussion organized by SOCOLAC and UNESCO. Centro Cultural Gabriela Mistral, Santiago, Chile | Room C2. Panelists: - Mr. Sergio Arauz, El Faro, El Salvador. - Ms. Diana Salinas, Cuestión Pública, Colombia. - Ms. Mónica González, Journalist, Chile. - Ms. Veronica Goyzueta, Journalist, Peru. Moderator: Mr. Daniel Matamala, Journalist, Chile.

Panel discussion organized by OBSERVACOM, UNESCO Montevideo, DW Akademie. Venue – Centro Cultural Gabriela Mistral, Santiago, Chile .| Room C1. Panelists: - Ms. Mónica Valdés, Community Radio Activist, Colombia. - Ms. Rocio Alorda, Colegio de Periodistas de Chile, Chile. - Mr. Martín Becerra, Investigative Journalist and Professor, Argentina. - Mr Luis Salazar, CEPRA, Bolivia Moderator: Mr. Mauricio Muñoz, CNTV, Chile.

Panel discussion organized by UNESCO. Venue – Centro Cultural Gabriela Mistral, Santiago, Chile | Room N2. Panelists: - Ms. Blanca Lilia Ibarra Cadena, Commissioner at the National Institute for Transparency, Access to Information and Personal Data Protection of Mexico, Mexico. - Ms. Constance Nalegach, Head of International Affairs, Chilean Ministry of the Environment, Chile. -Mr. Michel Forst, UN Special Rapporteur on Environmental Defenders under the Aarhus Convention. - Mr. David Barrio Lamarche, Escazú Agreement Secretariat, ECLAC. Moderator: Ms María Carolina Fuentes Prieto, Journalist and documentalist, Chile.

Panel discussion organized by Al Jazeera. Venue – Centro Cultural Gabriela Mistral, Santiago, Chile . | Room A1 - Mr. Wael Aldahdouh, Al Jazeera, Palestine (video message) - Ms. Khadija Patel, Al Jazeera, South Africa. - Ms. Irene Khan, UN Special Rapporteur - Ms. Paula Cejas, International Federation of Journalists, Argentina - Ms. Dima Khatib,Al Jazeera Media Network, Palestine-Syria.

Panel discussion organized by Instituto Alana. Venue – Centro Cultural Gabriela Mistral, Santiago, Chile . | Room A2 - Mr. João Brant, Secretariat of Communication of the Presidency of the Republic, Brazil - Mr. Francisco Vera, Youth, Colombia - Ms. Awo Aidam Amenyah, founder of Child Online Africa, Ghana. - Ms. Taissa Kambeba, Indigenous teenager, Brazil. Moderator: Ms. Emiko Sepúlveda, LCOY Chile Coordinator, Chile.

Panel Discussion organized by Climate Tracker and UNESCO | Room C1. Venue – Centro Cultural Gabriela Mistral, Santiago, Chile . - Mr. Patrick Murayari, Kukama-kukamiria Indigenous Community in Loreto, Peru - Ms. Sonia Pérez, Associated Press - Mr. Nicolas Sepulveda, Journalist, Chile - Ms. Scarlett Arias, Frontline defenders, Mexico - Moderator: Ms. Nicole Venegas, Climate Tracker, Chile

Panel discussion organized by Defensoria de Público and UNESCO | Room N2 Daniel Zalazar, Centro de Producción Intercultural de Aluminé, Argentina. - Ms. Renata Machado, Radio Yandé, Brazil - Ms. María Dolores Euseda Cabrera, Radio Dignidad, Honduras - Ms. Myriam Vargas Teutle, Human rights defender, Mexico - Ms. Leyla Noriega, Radio Ayni, Chile - Moderator: Ms. Miriam Lewin, Defensora del Público de Argentina

Panel discussion organized by the DW Akademie | Room A2. Panelist: - Ms. Patricia Mayorga, Periodistas de a Pie, Mexico- Mr. Swapneel Mehta, MIT, India - Ms. Marcela Tobar Ríos, IDEA, Chile - Ms. Gwen Lister, Namibia Media Institute, Namibia Moderator: Mr. Carsten von Nahmen, DW Akademie, Germany.

Panel discussion Organized by the Climate Action Against Disinformation Coalition - Union of Concern Scientists | Room C2 - Ms. Thais Lazzeri, FALA, Brazil - Mr. Maximiliano Manzoni, Author, Paraguay - Mr. Max McBride, Roots, UK - Ms. Jennie King, Institute for Strategic Dialogue, UK - Ms. Kate Cell, Union of Concerned Scientists, USA - Moderator: Mr. Brett Robertson, University of South Carolina, USA.

Panel discussion Organized by Climate Tracker and UNESCO | Room C1 - Mr. Patrick Murayari, Kukama-kukamiria Indigenous Community in Loreto, Peru - Ms. Sonia Pérez, Associated Press - Mr. Nicolas Sepulveda, Journalist, Chile - Ms. Scarlett Arias, Frontline defenders, Mexico - Moderator: Ms. Nicole Venegas, Climate Tracker, Chile

Panel discussion Organized by Defensoria de Público and UNESCO | Room N2 - Daniel Zalazar, Centro de Producción Intercultural de Aluminé, Argentina - Ms. Renata Machado, Radio Yandé, Brazil - Ms. María Dolores Euseda Cabrera, Radio Dignidad, Honduras - Ms. Myriam Vargas Teutle, Human rights defender, Mexico - Ms. Leyla Noriega, Radio Ayni, Chile Moderator: Ms. Miriam Lewin, Defensora del Público de Argentina

Opening remarks: Mr. Raúl Fernandez Daza, Ambassador of Chile to France and IPDC Council and Bureau, Chile - Ms. Irene Khan, UN Special Rapporteur - Ms. Ourveena Geereesha Topsy-Sonoo, African Union - Ms. Teresa Ribeiro, OSCE - Mr. Pedro Vaca, Inter-American Commission on Human Rights Moderator: Andrea Obaid, ACHIPEC, Chile

Panel discussion Organized by by DW Akademie | Room A2 Panelists! Ms. Patricia Mayorga, Periodistas de a Pie, Mexico Mr. Swapneel Mehta, MIT, India Ms. Marcela Tobar Ríos, IDEA, Chile Ms. Gwen Lister, Namibia Media Institute, Namibia Moderator: Mr. Carsten von Nahmen, DW Akademie, Germany

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...

  Within the framework of the Global Conference on World Press Freedom Day 2023 , the UNESCO Regional Office for Latin America and the Caribbean, the Global Freedom of Expression Program of Columbia University and the Society of Correspondents in Latin America and the Caribbean (SOCOLAC) co-organize this event to address, among other key issues, the Model Law on the Safety of Journalists, the safety of women journalists and the presentation of a " Model Protocol for the Intervention and Interaction of Security Forces with Journalists, Communicators and Media ”. Shaping a Future of Rights: Latest Initiatives for the Protection of Journalists in Latin America and the Caribbean . 4:00 PM – 6:00 PM. Location: MLK Conference Room 527, Riverside Church, Columbia University . Sponsored by: Columbia GFoE, UNESCO Regional Office in Montevideo, SOCOLAC (Society of Correspondents in Latin America and the Caribbean) Speakers: Rosa M. González, UNESCO; Nathalie Castillo, Chile Chamber of Deput...