World Press Freedom Day to focus on access to information and the empowerment of people
Saturday, 3 May is World Press Freedom Day, proclaimed by the General Assembly in 1993 to recognize the right to freedom of expression and information as a basic human right. Across the world, the day is being marked with the theme: “Access to information and the empowerment of people”.
The day serves as an occasion to draw attention to violations of people’s right to free speech and information, and to remind governments, intergovernmental and non-governmental organizations as well as civil society of the crucial role free speech plays in strengthening democracies and fostering development around the world.
It is also used to remind governments of the need to protect citizens right to information, especially the right of media professionals to work without fear of prosecution, by abolishing laws that infringe on such rights.
In a message to mark the day, Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon is calling on society to “spare no effort to bring to justice perpetrators of attacks on journalists.”
Access to information, the Secretary-General says, “empowers each one of us to transform our lives and our communities.”
Mr. Ban paid tribute to all who work in difficult and dangerous conditions to “provide us with free, unbiased information,” and called on all “to work for the freedom -- and the safety -- of the press everywhere”.
Several UN Information Centres, including Brussels, Cairo, Dar es Salaam, Harare, Lima, Lusaka, Manama, Rio de Janeiro, Tehran and Yaounde, have planned activities with national journalist associations in observance of the day.
In New York, the Department of Public Information marked the day on Thursday, 1 May, at the Secretariat with a ceremony followed by a panel discussion on the theme. The ceremony opened in Conference Room 1 at 10:00 a.m. with Under Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information Kiyo Akasaka delivering the Secretary-General’s message. There were messages from General Assembly President Srgjan Kerim and UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura. The chairman of the UN Committee on Information and President of the UN Correspondents Association also addressed the opening event.
The panel discussion, moderated by Mr. Akasaka, started with a taped statement by Chief Almir Naraymoga Surui, who is working to monitor illegal logging in the Amazon rainforest. Panelists included: Mr. Norberto Moretti, Counselor of the Permanent Mission of Brazil to the UN, whose country is being used as a case study for the discussion; Richard N. Winfield, chairman of the World Press Freedom Committee; Fernando Rodrigues, a Brazilian investigative Journalist, currently a Harvard Neiman Fellow; and Larry Rohter, a Journalist with the New York Times.
The UN family, working with the broad theme, has explored how technological advances have promoted media and information literacy and empowering people by enhancing access to information and freedom of expression.
“Freedom of expression is a fundamental element of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and is widely seen as underpinning overall democratic freedoms,” said Suzanne Bilello of UNESCO in a statement to the Committee on Information, on Wednesday 30 April.
In a report on the International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC), Ms. Bilello said media outlets are “crucial to the exercise of freedom of expression” because they provide the public with a platform through which the right is effectively exercised.
At its 26th session a few weeks ago, the IPDC Intergovernmental Council adopted a decision calling on governments to report to the Director-General of UNESCO on their investigations into the assassinations of journalists and other intentional crimes against media personnel.
Over the past two years, UNESCO has publicly condemned the killings of 121 journalists – 68 in 2006 and 53 in 2007, according to the IPDC report.
Sixty years ago, the drafters of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights declared in Article 19 that the right of everyone to freedom of opinion and expression “includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers”.