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As
the principal medium through which the day-to-day affairs of mankind
are reported, analysed and debated, the press is very far from being
only a chronicler, just a passive observer, merely a mirror of events.
The press is,
or strives to be, above all the voice of the people in their continual
dialogue with the centres of power in society. This is why the struggle
to control information, ideas and opinion, the struggle to master
the media, has been at the heart of most if not all of the violent
conflicts, whether civil or international, that have marred the
past one hundred years.
Countries with
a free press, true democracies where this dialogue remains open,
seldom if ever go to war with each other or with their own people.
Wars are generally initiated by despots, dictators or authoritarian
leaders and regimes which silence free expression - and the 20th
century had more than its fair share of them. Stalin and his successors,
Hitler, or Pol Pot had at least one thing in common: it was not
that they took control and led their nations into conflict without
consulting their people, since at least one of them rose to power
in elections.
Their one common
feature, apart from barbary, was that they eliminated or prevented
the growth of free information and opinion and harnessed a controlled
media to promote their brutal rule and their strategies of oppression
and aggression. The essential role of free information and a free
press in promoting democracy and opposing dictatorship has been
very well understood, and continues to be understood, by repressive
regimes throughout history. Such regimes still exist today, whether
in Burma, Cuba, China, Syria or Iraq, to name only a few. In none
of these countries are free ideas, opinion and information tolerated.
 What
is striking, however, is that as the world enters the 21st century,
these regimes appear primitive and backward, almost of another age.
The repressors of free expression, who once dominated whole regions
of the planet, now appear as anachronisms, holding back their people
from the march of history and human progress. The fight for free
expression, which claimed countless victims in our profession over
the 20th century, does continue today, as brave men and women in
many nations resist the abuse of power and struggle to provide a
platform for the advocates of pluralism and opposition to arbitrary
rule.
World Press
Freedom Day, on 3 May 2000, once again provides an opportunity to
recognise the sacrifices made by these publishers, editors and journalists
world-wide in the struggle for freedom of the press and also to
put pressure on those governments that continue to deny their citizens
this basic human right.
Last year was
a particularly murderous year for media employees, as 71 died in
the course of their reporting or while on duty, the highest death
toll since 1994. At the same time, 80 journalists are currently
imprisoned in 18 countries and no less than 103 nations put some
form of restriction on a fully free press.
As we approach
3 May, the World Association of Newspapers again calls on media
to make a major effort to give impact to World Press Freedom Day
and by doing so to remind the enemies of a free press that they
must account for themselves on the international stage. With this
in view, we are sending you enclosed a package of materials for
publication that day.
This includes:
essays on the development of press freedom in various regions of
the world; advertisements illustrating attacks on freedom of the
press; cartoons on the threats against press freedom; details of
the deaths of journalists last year; case studies on journalists
currently being held in prison; infographics on journalists killed
and jailed. Additional essays analysing the role of the press in
the establishment of democracy and in the fight against totalitarian
regimes, and highlighting some of the press men and women who Òmade
historyÓ in the 20th century, together with a kit of materials to
be used in Newspapers in Education and Young Reader programmes.
Finally, a few
words of warm thanks to some of the organisations which have helped
in our preparation of this package: the Committee to Protect Journalists;
Reporters Sans Frontières; the International Federation of
Journalists; the International Press Institute; the Glasnost Defence
Foundation in Russia; Agence France Presse; Inter-American Press
Association (IAPA); the Spanish newspaper El Mundo.
Timothy Balding
Director General
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Download 3 May
Package in PDF format (3.0 Megs):
