The following resolution was adopted by the members of the International Press Institute (IPI) on October 15, 2025 by unanimous vote of those present at the 74th annual General Assembly, and presented at the IPI World Congress on October 25, 2025 in Vienna, Austria.
IPI was founded 75 years ago on the belief that a free and independent press helps build a better, freer, and more peaceful world. Over the past decades, we have stood together in the face of political pressure, censorship, and repression to defend the rights of journalists and the vital role they play in holding the powerful to account.
Today, we, as a community of media professionals, affirm the vital role of the media — alongside other independent institutions such as the courts, academia, and civil society — as a check on the concentration of power and a safeguard against tyranny.
Journalists inform the public, share ideas and opinions, and hold the powerful to account for actions and decisions that impact the public’s rights and freedoms. Together with other independent institutions, the media are indispensable to the system of checks and balances at the heart of functioning democracies and of free societies.
Yet today, these institutions are under unprecedented attack worldwide. Authoritarianism is on the rise and the institutions of free society — including human rights principles and mechanisms — are under major strain. Governments and political elites openly seek to dismantle institutional checks on their power and brazenly flout the rule of law and accountability mechanisms designed to safeguard against abuse and overreach.
We are at an especially challenging moment for the press: Around the world, journalists and media outlets face escalating attacks, legal harassment and arrests, censorship, and surveillance, along with coordinated campaigns to discredit their work, to vilify them, and demonize them as “enemies,” “foreign agents,” and “spies.”
At the same time, the very notion of “independent media” has been co-opted and distorted by pundits, influencers and politicians from across the political spectrum. In some quarters, the term “mainstream media” has been turned into a slur, weaponized to delegitimize professional journalism and erode public trust in fact-based reporting.
Such attacks are deeply dangerous tactics designed to erode public trust not only in the media but in all independent institutions, undermining their legitimacy as public watchdogs with the right to investigate, write, speak, and express ideas and opinions that challenge or question those in power.
Free societies require robust, independent institutions such as the press to serve as a check on power, uphold justice and fairness, and ensure that our rights are protected and respected.
Eighty years ago, against the backdrop of two world wars, political leaders came together to codify the principles of free society into binding international agreements and mechanisms. In doing so, they recognized the indispensable role of access to independent news and information in countering state propaganda and unchecked power, in fostering dialogue and understanding between and within countries, and preventing conflict and violence between and within nations.
Today, world leaders must once again step up to defend the principles and institutions of free society. We urgently call on states and political leaders to recognize and reaffirm the value of the media as an independent institution that is essential to safeguarding our rights and freedoms. We call on these leaders and decision makers to stand to the defense of the media and all public watchdogs — even when these watchdogs expose the powerful to “uncomfortable truths.”
The rights of journalists to report on matters of the public interest, without fear or favor, is a bedrock of free society — and a free world.