World Press Freedom Day is commemorated each year on 3 May. In anticipation, the United Nations is organizing this year two observances in New York. The UN Department of Public Information (DPI) and the Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs (SIPA) are co-sponsoring a panel discussion on "Freedom of Expression in Cyberspace", on Thursday, 1 May 2003, 4-6 p.m., at Columbia University SIPA, 420 W. 118th St., 6th floor (Dag Hammarskjold Lounge). Moderated by Sreenath Sreenivasan, WABC-TV "Tech Guru" and co-founder of the South Asian Journalists Association, the discussion will include panelists Akwe Amosu, Executive Editor and Producer of AllAfrica.com, and Eben Moglen, Professor of Law and Legal History, Columbia Law School. This event is open to the public.

Video coverage will be available for on-demand playback on the UN Web page (http://www.un.org/NewLinks/index.html) by 6 May. For further information, please contact Ms. Joanna Piucci (212-963-7346).

On Friday, 2 May, the UN Department of Public Information, under the aegis of the General Assembly Committee on Information, will hold a formal observance with the specific theme “The Media and Armed Conflict”, from 10 a.m. to 12 noon in Conference Room 2 at UN Headquarters. Secretary-General Kofi Annan will speak, along with Ambassador Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury, Chairman of the Committee on Information, Abdul Waheed Khan, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Information and Communication, and Tony Jenkins, President of UN Correspondents Association. A screening of “Media and War Coverage”, presented by Robert Batscha, President of the Museum of Television and Radio, will precede a panel discussion, moderated by Shashi Tharoor, Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, which will feature Joy DiBenedetto (CNN), Bernard Estrade (AFP), Abderrahim Foukara (Al-Jazeera), Khalid Hasan (Daily Times, Lahore) and Tony Jenkins (Expresso, Portugal). Members of permanent missions, Secretariat staff, NGO representatives and the media are invited to attend. For further information, please contact Mr. Oleg Dzioubinski (212-963-1859).

In this edition of the UN Chronicle E-Alert, we feature articles from past issues relevant to the imperative of press freedom, and the specific issues in focus at this year's observances.

Web Article - 10 March 2003

• “World Press Freedom Prize for Israeli Journalist”
  by Darrell Dela Rosa, for the UN Chronicle.

• “International Journalism Awards 2003”
  by Horst Rutsch, for the UN Chronicle.

• “Education and the Freedom from Exclusion”
  by Colette Mazzucelli, Senior Research Fellow at the EastWest Institute, New York.

• “First UN Visual Media Fellowship Awarded”

• “Breaking or Building Barriers?”
  by Inga Eggers, for the UN Chronicle.

• “World Press Freedom Day: Observers and Participants”
  
  
• “Journalists: Must They Remain Neutral in Conflict?”
  by Ann Grier Cutter, for the UN Chronicle.

• “Through Technology's Lens”
  by Yvonne Acosta, for the UN Chronicle.

• “Conclusions of UN Freedom of Information Conference 1948”
  
  
• “UN Freedom of Information Conference 1948: What the Conference Achieved”
  by Carlos P. Romulo , President of the Conference on Freedom of Information (1948), Chief of the Philippine Mission to the United Nations (1945-54), President of the Fourth General Assembly of the United Nations (1949-50)

These stories and more can be found at UN Chronicle Online at www.un.org/chronicle.

The UN Chronicle print edition is published by the United Nations Department of Public Information in English and French, and co-published in Arabic, Chinese, Russian and Spanish. It is not an official record; the views expressed in individual articles do not necessarily imply official endorsement or acceptance by the United Nations.

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