World Press Freedom Day 2023 - What IFJ affiliates are doing

Many IFJ affiliates are taking action to mark World Press Freedom Day on 3 May. Here is a non exhaustive list of their initiatives.

Credit : CamboJA

BRAZIL: FENAJ will participate on 3 May at 8pm in a roundtable on the theme "Training and Information", an event held by the Journalism Course of Unochapeco. FENAJ president, Samira de Castro, and secretary of Education and Professional Improvement, Valci Zuculoto will attend.

CABO VERDE : The Cape Verde Association of Journalists (AJOC) is carrying out a series of activities to celebrate World Press Freedom Day, including conferences and the second edition of the Press Freedom Gala at the National Assembly. Winners of the National Journalism Award will be announced at the gala.

CAMBODIA : CamboJA in collaboration with a dozen of local organisations and UNESCO Office in Cambodia will organize a half-day event on the 2nd of May 2023 to commemorate the 30th anniversary of World Press Freedom Day. Through the event, journalists, civil society organizations, development partners and stakeholders will raise public awareness and debate the importance of press freedom in building a just, free, peaceful, and democratic Cambodian society. This event will also seek to strengthen solidarity and collaboration among stakeholders to address the current threats and challenges facing journalists and press freedom in the country and put the focus on how to promote further media freedom as an enabler of all the other human rights.

CAMEROUN : The Syndicat National des Journalists Camerounais (SNJC) is organizing a demonstration in the 10 regions of the country and a training on the impact of generativ AIs on the media.

CYPRUS : The Union of Press Workers (Basin-Sen) will publish a press release highlighting how media organizations in northern Cyprus are facing more political pressure, obstacles, and threats today than yesterday. All these threats and pressures damage press freedom, prevent journalists from producing objective and free news, and, more importantly, make it impossible to inform the public correctly. 

EL SALVADOR: On 3 May at 7:00 am in the Salón San Salvador of the Crown Plaza Hotel, Asociación de Periodistas de El Salvador will present its Press Freedom Report 2022.

FRANCE : The Syndicat National des Journalistes (SNJ) is organizing a rally on 3 May in Paris with speeches from Danièle Gonod, president of the association Les Amis de Ghislaine Dupont et Claude Verlon ; Maryvonne Lepage, mother of Camille Lepage and president of the association On est ensemble ; Dominique Pradalié, IFJ president; Malick Konaté, Malian journalist and documentary filmmaker; Ahmed Newton Barry, Burkinabe journalist; Emmanuel Poupard, First Secretary General of the SNJ; Laurent Dauré, one of the spokespersons for the Assange Support Committee and other speakers from whom we are waiting to hear back.

GAMBIA : The Gambian Press Union (GPU) will organize a one-day safety forum with media managers and editors. This activity is targeted at media managers and newsroom editors and it will be a one-day forum for 50 participants drawn from various media houses including the newspapers, radio, television, and online media. Participants will be introduced to the “GPU Safety Tookit”. The idea is to get media managers and editors to develop their own safety guidelines, or set up their own in-house safety protocols or to adopt the safety tools developed by GPU. 

GUINEA : The Association of Journalists of Guinea (AJG) intends to organize a training workshop for women journalists from 4 May to 5 May, 2023 on the theme "Security and Equality of women in the media" on the sidelines of the International Day of Freedom of the press. On 3 May, the High Authority for Communication (HAC) is organizing, in collaboration with Press Associations, the “International Press Day”

IFJ : About 15 IFJ delegates representing all IFJ regions will join UNESCO’s celebrations in New York city and participate in panel discussions. The Asia Pacific office will release its 21st annual South Asia Press Freedom report. The EFJ will organise a conference at Bozar, Brussels, on 2-3 May 2023, as part of its Safety4Journalists project. 

ITALY : The Federazione Nazionale Della Stampa Italiana (FNSI) will celebrate WPFD in Conselice (Ravenna) where is located the monument - unique in Italy - dedicated to press freedom.

INDONESIA : The Association of Journalists of Indonesia (AJI) will celebrate the full month-long World Press Freedom Day in May 2023, in collaboration with regional and local organizations. At  national level, the celebrations will take place in 25 cities with various activities such as public discussion, art, and photography exhibition, the establishment of a local journalist union, the media roadshow to protect vulnerable groups, the establishment of local human rights protection mechanism, and workshop on sexual violence. They will focus on asking the state to take the protection of journalists and human rights defenders more seriously ahead of the elections, repealing dangerous articles in the Electronic Information and Transaction Law that put journalists in jail, and asking the media to be more independent and professional in their elections coverage. On the regional scale, AJI and 5 organizations in Southeast Asia will launch of press freedom monitoring platform and digital campaign series. 

LEBANON : Lebanese Journalists Syndicate will organize a seminar on the 4 May on press freedom in Lebanon, with the participation of the IFJ. On the 5 May, a gathering for press freedom and remembrance of killed journalists in Lebanon at Beirut Martyrs Square will be organized.

MEXICO: The National Union of Press Editors (SNRP) and the Spanish University will hold the "1st National Journalistic Forum: Security, Guarantees and FAP: Freedom of the Press in Guerrero", which will be accompanied by a breakfast.

MOROCCO : The Syndicat National de la Presse Marocaine (SNPM) will organize a seminar on 1 May on social and professional rights of journalists and its effects on press freedom. On 3 May, the SNPM will organise an event to launch its annual press freedom report.

NORTH MACEDONIA : The Independent Trade Union of Journalists and Media Workers (SSNM) will mark World Press Freedom Day by organizing a blood donor event. The event will be organized in partnership with the Association of Journalists of Macedonia and the Red Cross of the City of Skopje. 

NORWAY : The Norwegian Union of Journalist, the Norwegian Press Council and the Editor’s association on May 3rd has invited its members (and others) to the House of the press in Oslo.  On the agenda: Investigative journalism in Ukraine and journalism in exile from Belarus, including investigating Ukrainian journalist Valeriya Egoshina as guest and others.
Screening of the documentary ITHAKA – introduced by Stella Moris Assange, wife and defense attorney of Julian Assange.  

PAKISTAN : The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) are holding a seminar at the PFUJ headquarters on 3 May with speakers from government, senior journalists, political leaders and representants from civil society.

PANAMA: On  6 May at 10:00 am, the Union of Journalists of Panama will hold a discussion on data protection and journalism at its headquarters.

PERU: The National Association of Journalists of Peru (ANP) will be holding a two-day broadcast programme on press freedom on 3 and 4 May.

PORTUGAL : The SinJor (Portuguese Union of Journalists) will moderate an online conference under the series of events that celebrate the 90-year anniversary of the Union entitled “Freedom of Speech”. The guest speakers for this event are Isabel Nery, writer and journalist, Tiago Rodrigues Bastos, Union lawyer since 1990, and Germano Silva, journalist and writer specialized in history. This initiative has the objective of amplifying the discussion, reflexion and journalist’s participation in it’s own circle.

SOMALIA : The National Union of Somali Journalists (NUSOJ) and the Kenya Union of Journalists (KUJ), are organizing the Eastern Africa Regional Workshop on the Role of the Media in countering extremism and terrorism, which is organized under the theme "Fostering Professional, Ethical and Safe Reporting of Violent Extremism and Terrorism in Eastern Africa".

SOUTH SUDAN : The Union of Journalists of South Sudan is participating in three activities. One in Juba, South Sudan’s capital, in collaboration with media stakeholders in the country. The second and biggest of all in Yambio, Western Equatoria state, located in the western part of the country and the third one in Wau, the capital of Western Bahr el Ghazal state. The union's president will participate in a two-day event on “Fostering Professional, Ethical and Safe Reporting of Violent Extremism and Terrorism in Africa” organized by the Somalia Union of Journalists in partnership with the Kenyan Union of Journalists in Nairobi on May 2 and 3rd.

SPAIN : The UGT-Spain will publish a press release.

SRI LANKA : Free Media Movement is organizing a series of events to celebrate World Press Freedom Day. Professor Jayadewa Uyangoda, one of the prominent scholars on human rights and media freedom will be the guest speaker on "How statutory laws, especially the laws for Prevention of terrorism enacted by the Government affectmedia freedom and journalism". Then,  Suu Mong Aung, a Myanmar human right activist will present her comparative analysis on Media Freedom of Sri Lanka and Myanmar. It will be followed by be a panel discussion on the proposed antiterrorism Act and its impact on freedom of expression.

SWITZERLAND : The three IFJ affiliates Impressum, SSM and Syndicom will issue a press release to welcome the National Action Plan for the safety of media professionals.

TUNISIA : The Syndicat National des Journalistes Tunisiens (SNJT) will organise an event to launch its annual press freedom report followed by a vigil for press freedom. On 4 May, they will organise a national conference with UNESCO and partners under the WPFD global theme. 

UNITED KINGDOM : The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) delegates  will hold the names of journalists killed in 2022 and 2023 and will be taking a photo of this, to be shared on the NUJ website on  3 May. 

USA: NWU members Despina Afentouli and Edward Hasbrouck, along with members of other affiliates of the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ), represented the NWU and IFJ at an all-day symposium held in the General Assembly chamber at United Nations headquarters in New York on World Press Freedom Day, May 2, 2023.

VENEZUELA: The SNTP will participate in an initiative with the EU on May 3. Marco Ruiz, Secretary General of the union, will speak on "media, journalism and regions". The SNTP will also organise a training on Safety and Self-Care for Journalists in Venezuela with delegates and volunteers from all over the country. This activity will take place on 4, 5 and 6 of May.

YEMEN : The Yemeni Journalist Syndicate and collaboration with the IFJ, will launch the Yemeni Media Ownership Report, a research covering 365 Yemeni media organisations.

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