Every year on May 3, World Press Freedom Day or World Press
Day is celebrated, to highlight the struggle and importance of media in the
world. World Press Freedom Day was announced by UN Assembly in 1993 by adopting
the recommendation of 26th session of UNESCO’s General Conference in
1991 and marking the Windhoek Declaration, a press freedom principles which was
put together by African journalists in the same year. On this day, people also
pay tribute to journalists who lost their lives while exercising their
profession and to defend the media from attacks on its freedom. Each year, this
event is planned in different country. This year the event will be held in
Jakarta, Indonesia from 1-4 May 2017.
On this day, also the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom
Award is awarded to individual, institution or organisation for their
outstanding contributing in the field of media anywhere in the world. The award
is created in 1997 and the prize is worth US$45,000 and is named after Guillermo
Cano Isaza, the editor of the Colombian newspaper El Espectador, who was
murdered in Bogota on 17 December 1986. Each year, a winner is selected by the
independent jury of 14 news professionals selected by the UNESCO
Director-General from the nominations submitted by the UNESCO member states and
NGOs working in the field of press freedom. A theme is selected for targeting
the crucial issues. This year the theme is “Critical Minds for Critical Times:
Media’s role in advancing peaceful, just and inclusive societies”.
