World Press Freedom Conference 2020 (22, 23, 24 April)

3 May acts as a reminder to gov­ern­ments of the need to respect their com­mit­ment to press free­dom and is also a day of reflec­tion among media pro­fes­sion­als about issues of press free­dom and pro­fes­sion­al ethics. Just as impor­tant­ly, World Press Free­dom Day is a day of sup­port for media which are tar­gets for the restraint, or abo­li­tion, of press free­dom. It is also a day of remem­brance for those jour­nal­ists who lost their lives in the pur­suit of a sto­ry.

In 2020 the annu­al World Press Free­dom Con­fer­ence (WPFC) will be host­ed by UNESCO and the King­dom of the Nether­lands. The con­fer­ence will take place on April 22, 23, 24 at the World Forum in The Hague, a city known for its role in inter­na­tion­al peace and jus­tice. Both orga­niz­ers call upon those active in the field of press free­dom to par­tic­i­pate in WFPDC 2020. The event will also fea­ture on the third day the first-ever World Press Free­dom Fes­ti­val. The con­fer­ence and fes­ti­val are being held in the run-up to World Press Free­dom Day on 3 May.
 

JOURNALISM WITHOUT FEAR OR FAVOUR

The title of this year’s cel­e­bra­tion is ‘Jour­nal­ism with­out Fear or Favour’. The key premise of the Con­fer­ence is that we need to stand up for free and inde­pen­dent media, and pro­tect jour­nal­ism from per­sist­ing and new forms of con­trol. With the inde­pen­dence and free­dom of the media under attack in so many coun­tries, this is now more rel­e­vant than ever. 
 

INSPIRING POSITIVE CHANGE

By set­ting the issue in world lead­ers’ agen­das, by inspir­ing and edu­cat­ing, and by mobi­liz­ing peo­ple into action, WPFD 2020 calls upon every­one to con­tribute to pos­i­tive change — includ­ing gov­ern­ments, jour­nal­ists and media, the judi­cia­ry and legal sec­tor, Inter­net busi­ness­es, civ­il soci­ety, acad­e­mia and the youth. 
 

REGISTER NOW FOR THE WPFC 2020

Inter­est­ed in join­ing the World Press Free­dom Con­fer­ence 2020? You are invit­ed to apply now! Go to the secured reg­is­tra­tion portal.(link is exter­nal) and com­plete the reg­is­tra­tion flow. Please note that your reg­is­tra­tion is pend­ing until your receive fur­ther notice from the WPFC team. 

CONFERENCE INFORMATION GUIDE FOR PARTICIPANTS AND JOURNALISTS

Infor­ma­tion for par­tic­i­pants and jour­nal­ists who want to cov­er WPFC 2020 can be found in the Con­fer­ence Guide. Report­ing jour­nal­ists will also get the oppor­tu­ni­ty to reg­is­ter for the con­fer­ence as from the last week of Feb­ru­ary. WPFC 2020 orga­niz­ers do not spon­sor trav­el arrange­ments for media. In case of any ques­tions, please send an email to: ward.bezemer@minbuza.nl(link sends e‑mail) and o.castellanos@unesco.org(link sends e‑mail).
 

CONCEPT NOTE

The con­cept note for this year’s World Press Free­dom Day lays out cur­rent devel­op­ments and points to pon­der con­cern­ing the safe­guard­ing of free and inde­pen­dent media.

Pre-registration