UNESCO World Press Freedom Day in Iraq: Exploring New Media’s Frontiers and Challenges
03-05-2011 (Baghdad)
Iraqi journalists will speak with one voice on 3 May, marking World Press Freedom Day by exploring new media’s impact on freedom of information and its role in empowering communities to action.
In a joint statement, the UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-moon, UNESCO Director-General, Irina Bokova, and UN High Commission for Human Rights, Navi Pillay, declared: “Our times feature great paradox. We enjoy unprecedented opportunities for expression thanks to new technologies and media.” They also acknowledged new threats to freedom of expression: “In a context of rapid change, new threats combine with older forms of restriction to pose formidable challenges to freedom of expression.”
New media technologies have played a significant role in organizing citizens in Iraq and elsewhere in the region to demand more accountability and political reform from their governments. The event at the Oil Cultural Center in the Iraqi capital will feature roundtables on:
The promotion of Internet and social networks as platforms for democratic discussion and peaceful civic engagement in social and political discourse;
The human rights implications of new media technology and freedom of information legislation; and
The release of Journalism Freedom Observatory’s Report on Press Freedom 2011.
Estimates of 500,000 Facebook users in Iraq indicate that some one-third of Iraq’s Internet users use social networking platforms. According to Intermedia’s Survey 2010, 21% of adults use the Internet to gather news.
Internet-based applications, particularly the emergence of social networks, user generated content and micro-blogging, have enabled Internet users to be potential broadcasters and disseminators of information in rapidly creating, modifying and sharing digital content and knowledge with other users both locally and globally.
World Press Freedom Day 2011 in Iraq will feature comments by Mufid Al Jezairy (journalist and former Minister of Culture), Hamid Jaad, from Media College at Baghdad University, and Special Representative of the UN Secretary General to Iraq, Ad Melkert.
The event will also feature the official launch of Iraq’s first Bloggers Union, a photojournalism exhibit and an exhibit of editorial cartoons. Iraqi bloggers will be uploading live from the event, and will hold classes for the public on the use of social networking media, to be followed at www.wpfdiraq.org.
New media technologies have played a significant role in organizing citizens in Iraq and elsewhere in the region to demand more accountability and political reform from their governments. The event at the Oil Cultural Center in the Iraqi capital will feature roundtables on:
Estimates of 500,000 Facebook users in Iraq indicate that some one-third of Iraq’s Internet users use social networking platforms. According to Intermedia’s Survey 2010, 21% of adults use the Internet to gather news.
Internet-based applications, particularly the emergence of social networks, user generated content and micro-blogging, have enabled Internet users to be potential broadcasters and disseminators of information in rapidly creating, modifying and sharing digital content and knowledge with other users both locally and globally.
World Press Freedom Day 2011 in Iraq will feature comments by Mufid Al Jezairy (journalist and former Minister of Culture), Hamid Jaad, from Media College at Baghdad University, and Special Representative of the UN Secretary General to Iraq, Ad Melkert.
The event will also feature the official launch of Iraq’s first Bloggers Union, a photojournalism exhibit and an exhibit of editorial cartoons. Iraqi bloggers will be uploading live from the event, and will hold classes for the public on the use of social networking media, to be followed at www.wpfdiraq.org.
The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed World Press Freedom Day in 1993, following a recommendation adopted at the twenty-sixth session of UNESCO’s General Conference in 1991. UNESCO will celebrate the global observance this year in Washington DC, U.S.A. The imprisoned Iranian journalist, Ahmad Zeidabadi, has been named laureate of the 2011 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize, in tribute to his exceptional courage, resistance and commitment to freedom of expression democracy and human rights.
Related themes/countries
· Iraq
· UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize 2011
· World Press Freedom Day 2011
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- UNESCO
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