World Press Freedom Day
A Press for the Planet: Journalism in the face of the Environmental Crisis
Between May 2 and 4, Chile and UNESCO will host the 31st World Press Freedom Day Conference.
World Press Freedom Day will be dedicated to the importance of journalism and freedom of expression in the context of the current global environmental crisis.
Read more in the concept note here.
Join us in Santiago, Chile!
The 31stedition of World Press Freedom Day will highlight the significant role played by the press, journalism, access, and dissemination of information to ensure and secure a sustainable future that respects the rights of individuals and their diversity of voices, as well as gender equality.
The Day will serve as a platform to bring together key actors and reflect on the fundamental role of journalism and reliable information in protecting our planet and discuss topics, including: The importance of reliable and accurate information, especially that which denounces and investigates the environmental crisis and its effects.
The importance of reliable and accurate information, especially that which denounces and investigates the environmental crisis and its effects.
Violence faced by journalists and communication workers when promoting sustainable development and environmental protection, encouraging a gender-responsive perspective that promotes non-sexist journalistic discourse.
Support for the media to strengthen their institutional capacities to report on climate change and environmental crises, paying special attention to the viability of the media.
Dis- and misinformation about environmental issues and its impact on public and political support for climate action, effective policies, and the protection of vulnerable communities affected by climate change.
Use the occasion to recall the Santiago Declaration, which stresses the importance of respecting media pluralism and cultural, linguistic, and gender diversity as a fundamental factor of our democratic societies and which should be reflected in all media.
The role of other critical voices, such as scientists and artists, will also be discussed. The urgency of tackling the massive waves of dis and misinformation about the current global environmental crisis will occupy a prominent space in next year’s agenda.
Side-events in Santiago
World Press Freedom Day 2024 represents an opportunity to bring together organizations and journalists working on environmental issues and reporting climate change. The Day is also an opportunity to highlight the actions of independent actors and their role in exposing the impacts of environmental disruptions.
Side events organized by partners are set to take place in Santiago on May 4, 2024. We encourage you to take part in this global forum and organize events and discussions. If you are interested, please fill this form and send it to us before 30 January 2024.
Commemorations around the world
World Press Freedom Day is taking place on a global scale. Local, national and regional celebrations are organized by government and civil society organizations, including media, journalists' associations, universities, among others. If you are planning to organize an event in your country, please fill out the form below so it can be featured in UNESCO's list of commemorations around the world.
Academic conference
The call for abstract submissions for World Press Freedom Day 2024 is open until 22 January 2024.
If you are an academic interested in topics such as freedom of expression and safety of journalists, you can make a submission of abstract. The academic conference will take place on 4 May 2024, in Santiago, Chile.
UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize
WPFD 2024 will mark its inauguration on the evening of May 2 in Santiago with the award ceremony of the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize.
The prize is awarded to a person, organization or institution that has made an outstanding contribution to the defense and, or promotion of press freedom anywhere in the world, and especially when this has been achieved in the face of danger.
The Prize was created in 1997 by UNESCO’s Executive Board in memory of Guillermo Cano Isaza, a Colombian journalist who was assassinated in front of the offices of his newspaper El Espectador in Bogotá, Colombia on 17 December 1986.
Dis and misinformation around the climate crisis
In the context of the world's triple planetary crisis (climate change, biodi-versity loss, and air pollution) dis- and misinformation campaigns challenge knowledge and scientific research methods. Attacks on the validity of science pose a serious threat to pluralistic and informed public debate. Indeed, misleading and false information about climate change can, in some cases, foster doubt and incredulity about environmental issues, their impact and urgency, and undermine international efforts to address them.
Dis- and misinformation about environmental issues can lead to a lack of public and political support for climate action, effective policies, and the protection of vulnerable communities affected by climate change, as well as of women and girls, as climate change tends to exacerbate existing inequalities.
To address this flood of disinformation in the digital ecosystem, UNESCO launched in November 2023 the Guidelines for the governance of digital platforms. If implemented in their entirety, the Guidelines will empower all relevant stakeholders to put in place a governance system that can foster freedom of expression while tackling the negative externalities.
Get Involved
#WorldPressFreedomDay #PressFreedom
3 May acts as a reminder to governments of the need to respect their commitment to press freedom and is also a day of reflection among media professionals about issues of press freedom and professional ethics. Just as importantly, World Press Freedom Day is a day of support for media which are targets for the restraint, or abolition, of press freedom. It is also a day of remembrance for those journalists who lost their lives in the pursuit of a story.
Read more
Every year, 3 May is a date which celebrates the fundamental principles of press freedom, to evaluate press freedom around the world, to defend the media from attacks on their independence and to pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the exercise of their profession. World Press Freedom Day was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in 1993 following a Recommendation adopted at the twenty-sixth session of UNESCO's General Conference in 1991. This in turn was a response to a call by African journalists who in 1991 produced the landmark Windhoek Declaration.
News
The Santiago Declaration
The historic Santiago Declaration was adopted during the “Seminar on the Development of Media and Democracy in Latin America and the Caribbean” (May 6, 1994). It marked a new phase in promoting the right to freedom of expression and of the press, as well as the development and recognition of community media, independence, and pluralism of the media in Latin America and the Caribbean.
The Windhoek Declaration
The Windhoek Declaration is considered a benchmark for ensuring press freedom around the world. It all began at a seminar in Windhoek, Namibia in 1991.
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