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World Press Freedom Day
FACT SHEET
- The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed World Press Freedom Day in 1993. Since then, it has been celebrated each year on 3 May, the anniversary of the Declaration of Windhoek. The document calls for free, independent, pluralistic media worldwide characterizing free press as essential to democracy and a fundamental human right.
- The Declaration of Windhoek is a statement of free press principles as put together by newspaper journalists in Africa during a UNESCO seminar on “Promoting an Independent and Pluralistic African Press” in Windhoek, Namibia from 29 April to 3 May 1991.
The meeting happened at the end of the Cold war, triggered by the crisis of the African print media in the 1980s and inspired by the move toward democratization in the region. In addition to practical problems related to the lack of adequate facilities, equipment and training for journalists, the document also enumerates instances of intimidation, imprisonment, and censorship across Africa.
- Many of these issues remain at the centre of free press discussions around the world. With the proliferation of Information and Communication technologies (ICTs), the global digital divide is constantly discussed at various United Nations meetings, most recently, the World Summit on the Information Society (WSIS).
- The World Press Freedom day is celebrated worldwide to remind governments to “reaffirm as an essential foundation of the information society, and as outlined in article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, that everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; that this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers” (Declaration of Principles, paragraph 4).
- Since 1997, UNESCO has marked World Press Freedom Day by awarding the annual UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize to a deserving person, organization or institution that has made an outstanding contribution to the defence and/or promotion of press freedom anywhere in the world, especially when this has been achieved in the face of danger. The prize is awarded on the recommendation of an independent jury of 14 news professionals. Names are submitted by regional and international NGOs working for press freedom and by UNESCO Member States. The Prize is named in honour of Guillermo Cano Isaza, a Colombian journalist, who was assassinated in front of the offices of his newspaper, El Espectador, in Bogota, in 1986.
- This year, the Prize was awarded to Lebanese journalist, May Chidiac.
- For more information World Press Freedom Day, please visit UNESCO's website.
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