World Press Freedom Day is coming home

Next year’s World Press Freedom Day will be commemorated in Namibia. And the event will coincide with the 30^th anniversary of the Windhoek Declaration.

In the year 1991 global players in the sector of media communication gathered in Windhoek under the auspices of UNESCO where they drafted and adopted an important document known as the “Windhoek Declaration for the Development of a Free, Independent and Pluralistic Press” or just “Windhoek Declaration” in short.

The Windhoek Declaration gave birth to the World Press Freedom Day which is celebrated worldwide on the 3rd of May every year since 1993 when the UN General Assembly, following a recommendation adopted at the 1991 Windhoek Declaration UNESCO’s General Conference, proclaimed 3 May as World Press Freedom Day.

Next year’s Global Conference of the World Press Freedom Day will thus be a significant and historic occasion.

In an exclusive interview with Omutumwa the Head of Office and UNESCO Representative to Namibia, Mr Djaffar Moussa-Elkadhum, said: “On 8 October we did a big international launch or kickoff for Namibia to be the central host of World Press Freedom Day next year. Celebrating at the same time the major achievements of African journalists, which is the Windhoek Declaration, its 30^th anniversary.”

The event which will take place from 1 to 3 May 2021 will be organized by the Namibian Government in partnership with UNESCO.

The Netherlands which hosted this year’s UNESCO General Conference and World Press Freedom Day commemorations handed over the responsibility to Namibia to start making preparations for next year’s event which will be bigger and better than any of the previous events.

Namibia has made notable achievements over the years since the 1991 Windhoek Declaration, with the most notable one being the freedom of the media to operate and carry out their activities without government harassment.

Consistently over the years Namibia has been ranked as the best country in Africa and one of the best in the world where freedom of the media is concerned.

“This is an achievement, isn’t it?” Mr Moussa-Elkadhum said. “Would you prefer to be a journalist in Namibia or in Mozambique?”

The 2020 World Freedom Day theme was “Journalism Without Fear or Favour”.