The International Press Institute (IPI) will mark this year’s World Press Freedom Day by joining leading press freedom defenders in presenting a panel discussion on journalists’ safety as part of worldwide celebrations organised by the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Finland.
The discussion, organised thanks to the support of the Helsingin Sanomat Foundation, is set to be held from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. on Wednesday at Helsinki’s Finlandia Hall during the May 2 to 4 UNESCO event “Access to Information and Fundamental Freedoms – This Is Your Right!” The panel will focus on strengthening momentum created by the U.N. Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity, which UNESCO has been working to implement.
IPI was joined in organising the panel by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), International Media Support (IMS), the International News Safety Institute (INSI), Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA).
Panellists include IFJ General Secretary Anthony Bellanger, Sveriges Radio Director-General Cilla Benkö, International Business Times Middle East Correspondent Erin Banco, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information Frank La Rue, World Editors Forum Safety Advisor Javier Garza Ramos, IMS Iraq Programme Manager Osama Al-Habahbeh and Pakistan Press International Chairman Owais Aslam Ali, who also serves as a member of IPI’s Executive Board. IPI Executive Director Barbara Trionfi will moderate the discussion.
Journalists’ safety is one of the most pressing threats to press freedom, especially as the number of journalists around the world who have lost their lives in connection with their work has skyrocketed in recent years. According to IPI research, 2015 was one of the deadliest years on record for journalists around the world, with 108 journalists believed to have died as a direct result of their job and 36 more killed under circumstances that remain murky.
World Press Freedom Day is celebrated every year on May 3 to evaluate press freedom worldwide, to defend the media from attacks on their independence and to pay tribute to journalists who lost their lives in the exercise of their profession. In addition to this year’s main event organised by UNESCO in Helsinki, more than 100 other national celebrations will take place across the globe.
The U.N. General Assembly proclaimed May 3 as World Press Freedom Day in 1993 following a Recommendation adopted by UNESCO in 1991 in response to the landmark Windhoek Declaration on media pluralism and independence issued by African journalists that year.
This year’s commemorations mark three important milestones; 2016 is the 25th anniversary of the Windhoek Declaration and the 250th anniversary of the world’s first freedom of information law, covering both modern-day Sweden and Finland. It is also the start of the 15-year life cycle of the new Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which recognise that ensuring public access to information and protecting fundamental freedoms are necessary to promoting just, peaceful and inclusive societies.
The UNESCO event in Helsinki will examine press freedom from three primary perspectives: freedom of information as a fundamental freedom and as a human right, protecting press freedom from censorship and surveillance overreach, ensuring safety for journalism online and offline.
Following a full day of panels and discussions tomorrow, participants will gather for a ceremony to award the 2016 UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize in absentia to Khadija Ismayilova of Azerbaijan. The investigative journalist has been imprisoned since December 2014 on what many observers consider to be trumped-up charges brought in response to her investigations into the business activities of members of the family of Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev.
