Photo Exhibition "Protecting journalists to protect our freedoms"

This year marks the 75^th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Drafted by representatives with different legal and cultural backgrounds from all regions of the world, it set out, for the first time, fundamental human rights to be universally protected.

To echo that important anniversary, the theme of this year’s World Press Freedom Day, celebrated every 3^rd May over the past 30 years, was: “Shaping a Future of Rights. Freedom of expression as a driver for all other human rights”. 

Around the world, journalists and media workers are enablers of the enjoyment of everyone’s right to freedom of opinion and expression. They perform functions of public interest, providing citizens with reliable information, acting as an independent watchdog, and promoting a vibrant civic space, where we are all invited to contribute and make their voices heard.  

However, to bring news to every one of us, media workers risk becoming targets of attacks aimed to silence them. Since 1993, UNESCO has recorded more than 1,600 journalists killed worldwide. UNESCO’s latest World Trends Report in Freedom of Expression and Media Development found that 85 per cent of the world’s population experienced a decline in press freedom.  

Other challenges include online attacks - especially against women journalists - as well as the widespread of unlawful use of targeted surveillance technologies against journalists, raising protection issues not only for them but also for their sources, colleagues, friends, and family. 

The exhibition was also presented at a high-level conference in Vienna, commemorating the 10th anniversary of the UN Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity in 2022.

UNESCO and UN Human Rights, together with other actors such as media houses, journalists’ unions, academics, and non-governmental organizations, strive to report and raise awareness on threats that journalists and media workers face in the world. They also accompany them, through training courses and advocacy campaigns to increase their protection. They work with governments to set up and strengthen national frameworks for the safety of journalists that help prevent and protect them from abuses and ensure the prosecution of those abuses. 

Held in Geneva, host of the United Nations human rights mechanisms, including the Human Rights Council where resolutions on freedom of expression and safety of journalists are regularly adopted, this exhibition aims to remind each of us of the importance of doing all that is in our power to ensure journalists and media workers can continue to work freely, without fear, intimidation, or violence. 

Protecting journalism means, above all, protecting our freedoms. 

Let’s stand for our human rights; let’s stand for journalists when they are attacked!