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Add to Preferred Sources? 29 April – 3 May 2021
Virtual
The 2021 Global Conference is hosted by UNESCO and the Government of Namibia. It will take place on 29 April – 3 May in Windhoek. The event will be a physical and digital experience combining virtual and in-presence participation.
Under the theme “Information as a Public Good”, the Conference will call on the urgency to address the threat of extinction faced by local news media around the world, a crisis worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic. It will put forward ideas to tackle the challenges of our online media environment, push for more transparency, strengthen the safety of journalists and improve their working conditions, and support independent media to build back better.
The event also marks the 30th anniversary of the Windhoek Declaration, developed at a UN and UNESCO organized seminar in Windhoek by African journalists pressing for a free, independent, and pluralistic African press. The Declaration inspired the establishment of 3 May as World Press Freedom Day and it is considered a landmark which paved the way to political and economic deregulation in the media around the world thus increasing press freedom, and the development of media independence, pluralism, and diversity.
The Conference will spread in five days (like the 1991 Seminar) and will comprise over 35 sessions and plenaries including three thematic ones discussing current issues on media viability, the transparency of online platforms, and strengthening media and information literacy capacities. Keynotes and interviews with world-renowned journalists, media and tech leaders, experts, and activists will be held.