📅 2 – 5 May 2022
Punta Del Este, Uruguay
On 2-5, May 2022, UNESCO and the Republic of Uruguay will host the annual World Press Freedom Day Global Conference in a hybrid format in Punta Del Este, Uruguay. The Conference will address the digital era’s impact on freedom of expression, the safety of journalists, and access to information and privacy and will develop concrete recommendations to address these challenges. Sanitary conditions permitting, the goal is to have the largest possible number of participants join in person, with all sessions live-streamed via an online platform.
World Press Freedom Day 2022 will reunite relevant stakeholders such as policymakers, journalists, media representatives, activists, cybersecurity managers, and legal experts to explore these issues and develop concrete solutions to address the threats posed by increased surveillance to press freedom and privacy.
Every year, 3 May acts as a reminder to governments of the need to respect their commitment to press freedom and is also a day of reflection among media professionals about issues of press freedom and professional ethics. Just as importantly, World Press Freedom Day is a day of support for media which are targets for the restraint, or abolition, of press freedom. It is also a day of remembrance for those journalists who lost their lives in the pursuit of a story.
World Press Freedom Day was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in 1993 following a Recommendation adopted at the twenty-sixth session of UNESCO’s General Conference in 1991. This in turn was a response to a call by African journalists who in 1991 produced the landmark Windhoek Declaration on media pluralism and independence.