As the UN Organization responsible for defending and promoting freedom of expression, media independence and pluralism, UNESCO leads the organization of World Press Freedom Day each year.
This year's celebration will be particularly special: the international community will mark the 30th anniversary of the proclamation of the Day by the United Nations General Assembly. It will serve as an occasion to take stock of the global gains for press freedom secured by UNESCO and its partners in the past decades, as well as underline the new risks faced in the digital age.
The program will be as follows:
2 May - Global Conference, UN General Assembly Hall
Please register for press accreditation here
All details of the programme here and webcast here
10:00 - Opening ceremony
- Speech by Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO Director-General
- Video message from António Guterres, United Nations Secretary-General
- Keynote address by A.G. Sulzberger, Chairman and Publisher of The New York Times
- Performance by J. Ivy, Grammy award-winning spoken word poet
10.30 - High-Level Government Segment
10:40 - Panel: Speaking out for our rights
- Panel opening by Hamida Aman, Afghan Media manager and founder of Women's Radio Begum
- Remarks by Felipe Neto, communicator and digital influencer
- With Agnès Callamard, Secretary-General, Amnesty International, Masih Alinejad, journalist and women's rights campaigner, Rana Ayyub, journalist and columnist, Washington Post, Yalitza Aparicio, UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador for Indigenous Peoples - moderated by Maher Nasser, Director, Outreach Division, UN Department of Global Communications.
- Video message from Volker Türk, High Commissioner for Human Rights
11:30 - Panel: The institutions that defend human rights
- With Ilze Brands Kehris, Assistant Secretary-General for Human Rights, UN OHCHR, Dunja Mijatovic, Human Rights Commissioner, Council of Europe, Margarette May Macaulay, President, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Hassatou Ba-Minte, Africa Programme Officer, International Federation for Human Rights, FIDH - moderated by Antonio Zapulla, CEO, Thomson Reuters Foundation.
14:30 - Joint commitment "Multilateralism and freedom of expression"
- Presidents of representative bodies of the United Nations will present a joint statement showing how multilateralism and freedom of expression are both essential to ensuring that individuals and communities have a voice in shaping their societies - moderated by Bahia Tahzib-Lie, Human Rights Ambassador of The Netherlands.
15:00 - Panel: Journalism to reveal and counter human rights violations
- Panel opening by Almar Latour, Publisher of the Wall Street Journal
- With Sergiy Tomilenko, President, the National Union of Journalists of Ukraine, David Rohde, Executive Editor, New Yorker.com, Liliane Landor, Director of the BBC World Service, Jose Zamora, Chief communications and impact officer, Exile - moderated by Hoda Osman, Executive Editor, Arij.
16:00 - Joint Declaration from Special Mandate Holders on Media Freedom and Democracy
- With Irene Khan, UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, Ourveena Gereesha Topsy-Sonoo, African Union Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information, Pedro Vaca Villareal, Special Rapporteur of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, Teresa Ribeiro, OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media - moderated by Barbora Bukovska, Senior Director for Law and Policy, ARTICLE 19.
16:30 - Panel: Press freedom, the threats to journalists and the future of the media
- Keynote address by Samantha Power, USAID Administrator
- Panel opening by Khadija Patel, Head of Programme, International Fund on Public Interest Media
- Remarks by Anna Lührmann, State Minister for Europe and Climate, Federal Republic of Germany
- With Zoe Titus, President, Global Forum on Media Development; CEO of the Namibia Media Trust, Jodie Ginsberg, President, Committee to Protect Journalists, Drew Sullivan, Publisher, OCCRP and Reporters Shield creator - moderated by Omar Jimenez, CNN
17:40 - Closing remarks
- By Tawfik Jelassi, UNESCO Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information
2 May - UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize Award Ceremony, The Shed
The ceremony will take place from 7:00PM to 8:30PM.
Please register for press accreditation here
Created in 1997, the annual UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize honours a person, organization or institution that has made an outstanding contribution to the defence and, or promotion of press freedom anywhere in the world, and especially when this has been achieved in the face of danger. It is the only United Nations prize awarded to journalists. It is formally conferred by UNESCO on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day, on 3 May.
More about the 30th World Press Freedom Day
This year's theme for World Press Freedom Day is Shaping a Future of Rights: Freedom of Expression as a Driver for all other Human Rights. New UNESCO analysis of V-Dem data in 180 countries indicates a strong correlation between Freedom of Expression and the health of other human rights. The analysis shows that the countries with the highest levels of freedom of expression also enjoy a significantly higher level of protection of civil, political, economic and social rights, such as access to justice, a near absence of political killings and very low levels of exclusion across gender, socio-economic, urban-rural, political and social group indicators.
