Namrata Sharma-
MAY 3 is celebrated all over the world as the World Press Freedom Day. Nepal too has been celebrating this day. However, this year the gloom of the pandemic has overshadowed the celebrations. The United Nations General Assembly declared May 3 as the World Press Freedom Day. This day is observed to raise awareness of the importance of freedom of the press and remind governments of their duty to respect and uphold the right of freedom of expression enshrined under Article 19 of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This day also marks the anniversary of the Windhoek Declaration – a statement of free press principles put together by African newspaper journalists in Windhoek in 1991.
Evaluation
Since the first Declaration by the UN, May 3 has been the day to evaluate press freedom all over the world and to raise concerns over the curbing of press and attacks on journalists. This day celebrates the fundamental principles of press freedom and also pays tributes to the journalists who have lost their lives in pursuit of factual news to bring out stories that the world needs to read about. Over the years, there has been liberalisation of media in various nations and transnational media is a reality via satellite and subscription. This has led towards a rise of pluralistic media environment all over the world.
However, the media all over the world is now facing substantial economic challenges. Certain technological developments have helped people to communicate and access information more easily, but access to information still faces a huge divide between genders, social diversities, and between and within regions and countries. As corporatisation of media has increased, it is obvious that now a handful of internet companies provides communication services to billions of users across the world. Over the years, these service providers have also been criticised for enabling hate and disinformation rather than journalism. They are also slammed for weak transparency and accountability on how they use their gatekeeping power. Read Namrata Sharma's article on The Rising Nepal
