The award will be presented on 7 May 2025 at 13.30 CET, at the BIP Meeting Center, Rue Royale/Koningsstraat, Brussels, Belguim.
The UNESCO/Guillermo Cano Prize is a tribute to all journalists who continue to inform us despite numerous risks and threats to their personal safety. Each year, this Prize reminds us of the importance of standing alongside those who protect and pass on information.
Audrey AzoulayUNESCO Director-General
La Prensa has made courageous efforts to report the truth to the people of Nicaragua. Like other civil society organizations, La Prensa has faced severe repression. Forced into exile, this newspaper courageously keeps the flame of press freedom alive.
Yasuomi SawaChair of the international jury of media professionals
A historic Nicaraguan media outlet, the newspaper La Prensa - El Diario de los Nicaragüenses (The Nicaraguan Peoples' Journal) was founded in 1926 in the country's capital, Managua. In nearly a century of existence, La Prensa and its journalists have faced numerous acts of repression, which have intensified in recent years with restrictions on its distribution.
Since 2021, following the imprisonment and expulsion of its leaders and the confiscation of its assets, La Prensa has continued to inform the Nicaraguan population online, with most of its team in exile, operating from Costa Rica, Spain, Mexico, Germany and the United States.
UNESCO's work to protect journalists
UNESCO is the United Nations agency with a mandate to guarantee freedom of expression and the safety of journalists worldwide. It coordinates the United Nations Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Fight against Impunity.
In several regions of the world, UNESCO responds to the most urgent needs of exiled and displaced journalists. The Organization supports solidarity centres for journalists in Ukraine, shelters for journalists in Afghanistan and Sudan, and has set up regional centres in Costa Rica (for Latin America) and in Kenya (for East African). These centres offer journalists a safe working environment, provide security training and psychological and medical care, and financial assistance.
The Organization condemns every killing of a journalist and monitors the judicial follow-up. It trains journalists and judicial actors, and works with governments to develop policies and laws that promote the rights of journalists. UNESCO also raises global public awareness through events such as the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists (2 November) and World Press Freedom Day (3 May), which this year focuses on the influence of artificial intelligence (AI) on journalism and the media.
About the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano Prize
Created in 1997, the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize is awarded annually to a person, organization or institution that has made an exceptional contribution to the defence or promotion of press freedom anywhere in the world, particularly when this contribution has been made in the face of danger and with courage. It is the only United Nations prize awarded to journalists.
It is named after Guillermo Cano Isaza, a Colombian journalist who was assassinated on 17 December 1986 in Bogota (Colombia) in front of the offices of his newspaper El Espectador. It is funded by the Guillermo Cano Isaza Foundation (Colombia), the Namibia Media Trust, the Democracy & Media Foundation Stichting Democratie & Media (Netherlands) and the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
About UNESCO
With 194 Member States, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization contributes to peace and security by leading multilateral cooperation on education, science, culture, communication and information. Headquartered in Paris, UNESCO has offices in 54 countries and employs over 2300 people. UNESCO oversees more than 2000 World Heritage sites, Biosphere Reserves and Global Geoparks; networks of Creative, Learning, Inclusive and Sustainable Cities; and over 13 000 associated schools, university chairs, training and research institutions. Its Director-General is Audrey Azoulay.
"Since wars begin in the minds of men, it is in the minds of men that the defenses of peace must be constructed" - UNESCO Constitution, 1945.
