(WAN/IFEX) – The following is a WAN press release: Paris, 15 March 2000 For immediate release Press Freedom Day: Use It Or Lose It The World Association of Newspapers and World Editors Forum have launched a major campaign to encourage newspapers to promote World Press Freedom Day on 3 May. The Paris-based WAN and WEF […]
(WAN/IFEX) – The following is a WAN press release:
Paris, 15 March 2000
For immediate release
Press Freedom Day: Use It Or Lose It
The World Association of Newspapers and World Editors Forum have launched a major campaign to encourage newspapers to promote World Press Freedom Day on 3 May.
The Paris-based WAN and WEF are providing a package of editorial and advertising materials to thousands of newspapers world-wide for publication that day. The materials include political cartoons, essays by journalists and writers on press freedom at the turn of the century, information and infographics on murdered and jailed journalists, as well as a selection of public service advertisements about press freedom.
From today (15 March), the materials can be downloaded from the WAN website at www.wan-press.org/3may in English, French, German and Spanish. They are also available by e-mail by request to Paul Rojas Carstensen at WAN, pcarsten@wan.asso.fr.
“World Press Freedom Day exists to bring attention to the widespread violation of the right to freedom of expression and to campaign against the murder and jailing of journalists and the censorship and banning of their publications,” said Timothy Balding, Director General of WAN.
The 3 May 2000 package includes:
— Details of the killing of 71 journalists in 1999 and information on 80 journalists currently being held in prison;
— Advertisements on press freedom themes;
— Regional essays on the state of press freedom in:
Africa, by investigative reporter and author Charles Onana, Chairman of the Pan-African Organization of Independent Journalists,
Europe, by Jaroslav Veis, a Czech journalist, author and translator and former political columnist with the Lidové Noviny newspaper,
The Middle East, by Said Essoulami, Executive Director of the Centre for Media Freedom in the Middle East and North Africa,
North America, by Jean Folkerts, Professor and Director of the School of Media and Public Affairs at George Washington University in the United States,
and Latin America, by Danilo Arbilla, Editor of the weekly Busqueda news magazine in Uruguay and First Vice President of the Inter-American Press Association;
— Cartoons against press freedom repression by Michel Cambon, well known for his work with the press freedom group Reporters Without Borders.
The Paris-based WAN, the global organisation for the newspaper industry, defends and promotes press freedom world-wide. It represents 17,000 newspapers; its membership includes 63 national newspaper associations, individual newspaper executives in 93 countries, 17 news agencies and seven regional and world-wide press groups.
The WEF is the branch of WAN that represents senior newsroom personnel.
