World Press Freedom Day

World Press Freedom Day is being marked on Sunday, May 3, on the theme “Let Journalism Thrive! Towards better reporting, gender equality and media safety in the digital age.”   The United Nations General Assembly in 1993 established the annual observance on May3, the anniversary of the ‎Declaration of Windhoek.  UN Secy-Gen. Ban ki-Moon, Director-General of UN’s Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), Irina Bokova and UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein issued a joint message for this year’s observance saying, “Freedom  of  expression  and  press freedom are essential to success at every level,” as states are accelerating to reach the Millennium Development Goals and shaping  a  new  global  sustainable  development  agenda.   “For peace to be lasting and development to be sustainable, human rights must be  respected,” they said.  For this to happen, “everyone   must   be   free   to   seek,   receive   and   impart   knowledge  and  information on all media, online and offline,” in order to help people make informed decisions.  They also said that responsible journalism works to expose injustice, corruption and the abuse of power. Decrying horrendous attacks against journalists, the three UN chiefs said, “journalism  must  be able  to  thrive,  in  an  enabling  environment  in  which they can work independently and without undue interference and in conditions of safety.”   “Freedom of expression and press freedom,” they said, “are  not luxury attributes that can wait until sustainable development has been achieved  - it is an enabler for the enjoyment of all human  rights and, therefore, vital to good governance and the rule of law.”

The annual UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize ceremony will take place on Sunday at the National Library of Latvia in Riga. This year’s winner is Syrian lawyer and free speech advocate,  Mazen Darwish, the president of the Syrian Center for Media and Freedom of Expression (CMFE).  He has been in prison in Syria since 2012.  (Source: UN)