Today a good friend of the International Press Institute (IPI) is celebrating his 80th birthday.

It is with sincere respect and gratitude that we say Happy Birthday to Bishop Desmond Tutu, a staunch supporter of press freedom, freedom of speech and other basic human rights.

It was just last year that Bishop Tutu sent us a video underscoring his support for press freedom. He said, “Independent reporting is the keystone of any healthy democracy in which the fundamental right to express oneself and receive information is upheld.”

Earlier this year, the South African Nobel Peace Prize laureate endorsed the Declaration of Table Mountain, a media industry initiative – of which IPI is a co-signatory – to African leaders to repeal insult and criminal defamation laws.

Tutu voiced his support for the campaign this past July at the Highway Africa media conference in South Africa. “You, the media, have one of the most powerful instruments in helping our societies to value the truth,” he reportedly said. “If the powerful are doing what is unacceptable, you in the media must tell them ‒ you must not be willing to be bought off.”

He expressed similar sentiments in a foreword written for IPI’s “World Press Freedom Review: Focus on the Middle East and North Africa” in 2009.

“Communication, if free, is by definition a malleable force, open to manipulation. But it is indispensable. And we must be on our guard to protect it,” he wrote. “Other developments showed that journalists, a competitive bunch, have good reason for increased solidarity in light of the strikingly similar challenges they face worldwide.”

Thank you, Bishop Tutu, for your unflinching support of press freedom in South Africa and around the world.