Tag: United Nations Educational

By Praise Olowe

“World Press Freedom Day is one of the most inspiring moments on the global calendar. It is a moment to shine light on the right to access and share information. It is a moment to stand with all journalists, to defend their safety….. Irina Bokova, Director-General of UNESCO”

Freedom of the press as defined by numerous renowned scholars in the field of journalism is said to be the right to circulate opinions without censorship by the government. Press freedom globally was at its lowest ebb in 2015 in 12 years as various power factions struggle to silence the media in their proactive quest for power.

Each year, in marking the World Press Freedom Day with theme: “Critical Minds for Critical Times: Media’s role in advancing peaceful, just and inclusive societies”, we recognise that it is a day which celebrates the fundamental principles of press freedom to evaluate press freedom around the world. This is done to defend the media from attacks on their independence and to pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the exercise of their profession.

Over 100 national celebrations take place each year to commemorate this day. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) leads the worldwide celebration by identifying the global thematic and organizing the main event in different parts of world every year.

The international day was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in 1993 following a Recommendation adopted at the 26th 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.

Press Freedom in the world dates to the Stamp Act of 1765 where most printers in the colonies treated newspapers as any ordinary printing job, like books, pamphlets, and posters. Information included in these newspapers were mostly reprints of other publications, stories of local interest, literature, advertisements, and opinions. The introduction of the Stamp Act made the printers became publishers.

The American Revolution produced many historic newspapermen. Their strong feelings in support of independence and revolution were poured into their writings, spurring public interest and education on the issue. This was the beginning of the press’ role with the government, developing the press freedom that would later be set in the Constitution.

After the American Revolution, newspapers took a more critical stance with the newly formed government. Newspapers reported the financial difficulties created by the worthless American currency and argued against new stamp taxes. When the states began to meet to discuss the formation of a new central government, the Constitution’s “Founding Fathers” kept their deliberations secret. There was no public access, freedom of information, open meetings, or “right to know” guarantees then.

Although the Constitution contained a clause for freedom of the press in the Bill of Rights, the government originally set many controls on the press and quieted the opinions of most early journalists. Later, the First Amendment was put on the back burner when the federal government muzzled the press using the Sedition Act of 1798, which made any speech or writings against the U.S. government unlawful.

The focus of American journalism soon began to center on the new capital, Washington D.C., in 1810. Joseph Gales and William Seaton, publishers of the National Intelligence, brought objective reports of congressional debates and other governmental events to the public’s attention. Politics began to play more of a role in reporting as the 19th century progressed. Slavery, presidential elections, the suffrage movement, temperance, free education and foreign policy (i.e. the Monroe Doctrine of 1823) were news.

Newspapers, which could now be produced rapidly and more cheaply, were becoming the catalyst to social change by bringing information on many national issues to the masses. Throughout the mid- to late-1800s, newspapers also became more focused on sensationalism. Stories about love, tragedy, crime and entertainment found their way into newspaper in order to increase circulation. With Horace Greeley’s 1835 statement that the future was in the west in a New Yorker article, more newspapers spread throughout the west.

The Libyan media experienced a dramatic opening after the fall of Mu’ammar al-Qadhafi and were caught between rival governments in Tripoli and Tobruk in 2015. Many cases are becoming little more than mouthpieces for whichever government or affiliated militia can control their region. In Yemen, civil conflict similarly increased media polarization as outlets fell into line with either the exiled government or the Houthi rebels, and independent writers and journalists were marginalized or persecuted. Extremist groups opposed to both sides also took their toll.

So far, Syria remained the deadliest place in the world for journalists in 2015. This is a corroborated fact from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). No fewer than 14 were killed in the country and three Syrian journalists who had sought safety abroad were assassinated in Turkey by the notorious Islamists group, ISIS. The notorious sect, has proven adept at bypassing formal news outlets and using social media to spread its propaganda around the world aside the continuous onslaught against journalists.