NEW YORK, APRIL 26 – On May 3 2023, for 30th edition of World Press Freedom Day, UNESCO will organize two major events the day before in New York: a global conference at the United Nations headquarters and the award ceremony of the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize at The Shed.
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.
On May 2 at the General Assembly, a speech by Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO Director-General, and a video message of the Secretary General, António Guterres, will be follwed by a keynote address by A.G. Sulzberger, Chairman and Publisher of The New York Times, and a performance by J. Ivy, Grammy award-winning spoken word poet.
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. (@OnuItalia)
