UN Secretary-General, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and UNESCO Director-General Release Joint Statement for World Press Freedom Day 2011

UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Navi Pillay, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, and Irina Bokova, UNESCO Director-General released a joint statement in support of World Press Freedom Day 2011.

World Press Freedom Day was born twenty years ago in the vision of a group of journalists gathered in Windhoek, Namibia. The Windhoek Declaration was a call to arms to protect the fundamental principles of the freedom of expression as enshrined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration Human Rights. It was also a bell mringing in change across the world.

Twenty years on, the media landscape has changed beyond recognition, but our objective remains the same: to promote freedom of expression as the foundation for human dignity and the cornerstone of democracy.

Our times feature great paradox. We enjoy unprecedented opportunities for expression thanks to new technologies and media. More and more people are able to share information and exchange views, within and across national borders. This is a blessing for creativity, for healthy societies, for including everyone in new forms of dialogue.

At the same time, new threats are arising. In a context of rapid change, these combine with older forms of restriction to pose formidable challenges to freedom of expression. New measures to block, filter and censor information emerge every day. Challenges take different features, but they share the same face as violations of a fundamental human right.

Read the full statement here.