May 3rd is World Press Freedom Day, and was first observed by the UN General Assembly in December 1993. Since then, it has been celebrated every year, and is an opportunity for people around the world to:
- Celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom.
- Assess the state of press freedom throughout the world.
- Defend the media from attacks on their independence.
- Pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the line of duty.
The 2018 Theme for World Press Freedom Day is Keeping Power in Check: Media, Justice and The Rule of Law. This theme highlights the importance of an enabling legal environment for press freedom, and gives special attention to the role of an independent judiciary in ensuring legal guarantees for press freedom and the prosecution of crimes against journalists. The campaign underscores the importance
of access to information and journalistic
independence with this simple phrase:
Read more. Listen more. Understand more.
It all starts with a free press.
- Attacks on the Press: Journalism on the World’s Front Lines, the Committee to Protect Journalists.
- Journalism ethics and regulation, by Chris Frost.
- Journalism and free speech, by John Steel.
- There is No Such Thing as a Free Press : …and we need one more than ever, by Mick Hume
- Keeping Power in Check – Media, Justice and the Rule of Law. AllAfrica.com, Washington