Pakistan Views

Like other parts of the globe, Pakistan will also observe the world press freedom day on May 3. The theme of this year is, ‘Freedom of Expression, Access to Information and Empowerment of People.’ The media organisations and civic bodies have planned number of events including seminars, discussions on press freedom and other programmes to mark the day.The present government is committed to ensure more freedom for the media and protection of journalists’ rights. The government soon after coming in the power moved a bill in the Lower House to repeal all those laws that are against the freedom of press. At this year’s world press freedom day celebration, Unesco would like to explore how media freedom and access to information feed into the wider development objective of empowering people.World press freedom day reminds us all- governments, intergovernmental and non-governmental organisations as well as civil society - of the crucial role a free press plays in strengthening democracies and fostering development around the world.World press freedom day is a day designated by the United Nations to raise awareness of the importance of freedom of the press and to remind governments of their duty to respect and uphold the right to freedom of expression enshrined under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in 1993, the day is celebrated each year on May 3, the anniversary of the Declaration of Windhoek, a statement of free press principles put together by African newspaper journalists in 1991.Unesco marks World press freedom day by conferring the Unesco/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize on a deserving individual, organisation or institution that has made an outstanding contribution to the defence and/or promotion of press freedom anywhere in the world, especially when this has been achieved in the face of danger.The Prize is named in honour of Guillermo Cano Isaza, a Colombian journalist who was assassinated in front of the offices of his newspaper, El Espectador, in Bogot, on 17 December 1986. Cano’s writings had offended Colombia’s powerful drug barons.