Every year, May 3 is when the world celebrates the fundamental principles of press freedom. It’s a day to evaluate press freedom around the world, 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. At the core of the date is a reminder that it can be suicide to become a journalist. Publications and the people who work with them are harassed, attacked, murdered. Publications are censored, fined and closed down.
#WorldPressFreedomDay
It is an opportunity to:
- celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom;
- assess the state of press freedom throughout the world;
- defend the media from attacks on their independence;
- and pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the line of duty.
In the United States, over the last 15 years, the number of reporters, editors, photographers, and other U.S. newsroom employees fell by 45 percent. It’s expected that more newsrooms will follow suit as news business models continue to be in flux. There are now some 1,500 “ghost papers,” where skeleton staffs are offering little to no local news coverage. And, in some places, access to news has dried up entirely: More than 1,400 communities across the country lost a newspaper over this period.
HOW TO OBSERVE WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY
Visit the Press Freedom Day online. Use your local newspaper to express yourself. Write a letter to the editor on something that you feel strongly about.
Read George Orwell’s 1984, Aldous Huxley’s Brave New World, Ray Bradbury’s Fahrenheit 451 all of which picture a society without a free press.
Follow on social media with #PressFreedomDay, or #WorldPressFreedomDay
