World Press Freedom Day Celebrated Across the World with Safe to Speak Theme

3 May: World Press Freedom Day

World Press Freedom Day is celebrated across the world on 3 May 2013. The theme for World Press Freedom Day 2013 is Safe to Speak: Securing Freedom of Expression in All Media.

This is the 20th anniversary of World Press Freedom Day. This day was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in December 1993 after recommendations of General Conference of UNESCO. Ever since then, 3 May is observed as the World Press Freedom Day on the anniversary of the Declaration of Windhoek.

World Press Freedom Day is the opportunity to:

• Celebrate fundamental principles of press freedom
• Assess state of press freedom all over the world
• Defend attack on media independence
• Pay tribute to those journalists who died during dissemination of their duty

Freedom of Expression: A fundamental human right under 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights

It is worth noticing that Freedom of Expression is the fundamental human right under 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

In various countries across the world, thousands of publications are suspended, censored, shut down or fined. Various journalists, publishers as well as the editors are attacked, harassed, murdered and detained. In last 10 years, over 600 journalists have been killed and out of these 120 have died in 2012 alone.