World Press Freedom Day
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World Press Freedom Day honours sacrifices around the world made for press freedom and puts pressure on governments that deny their citizenry of this basic human right. Since 1993, the day has been observed on May 3, the anniversary of the Declaration of Windhoek.
UNESCO marks World Press Freedom Day by conferring the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize on a deserving individual. Created in 1997, the annual prize honours a person, organization or institution that has made an outstanding contribution to the defence and/or promotion of press freedom anywhere in the world, especially when this has been achieved in the face of danger. The prize is awarded on the recommendation of an independent jury of 14 news professionals. Names are submitted by regional and international non-governmental organizations working for press freedom, and by UNESCO Member States.
The Prize is named in honour of Guillermo Cano Isaza, a Colombian journalist who was assassinated in front of the offices of his newspaper, El Espectador, in Bogotแ, on December 17 1986.
The 2005 Prize was awarded to Chinese journalist Cheng Yizhong, the former editor of Nanfang Dushi Bao (Southern Metropolis Daily), a daily newspaper in Guangzhou that broke new ground in Chinese journalism, says UNESCO.
In December 2003, Nanfang Dushi Bao reported a suspected SARS case in the city of Guangzhou, the first new case in China since the epidemic was wiped out in July 2003. The government had not yet publicly released information about the case when the newspaper's report was published. Nanfang Dushi Bao also broke the story of a college student who was beaten to death while in police custody. Public outcry over the death led to the arrest of several local government and police officials.
The South China Morning Post reported that Chinese authorities have barred Cheng from leaving China to accept the award. "I feel very regretful and apologetic," Cheng said in a statement posted on the Internet. He called on journalists in China to "speak the truth."
External links
- World Association of Newspapers - Getting Away with Murder (http://www.worldpressfreedomday.org/)
- International Freedom of Expression eXchange (http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/242/)
- UNESCO World Press Freedom Day site 2005 (http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=1204&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html)
- UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize (http://portal.unesco.org/ci/en/ev.php-URL_ID=1738&URL_DO=DO_TOPIC&URL_SECTION=201.html/)de:Welttag der Pressefreiheit