The Elders
A World Press Freedom Day Editorial by The Elders. Martti Ahtisaari is the former President of Finland and a Nobel Laureate. Lakhdar Brahimi is the former Foreign Minister of Algeria and former UN Special Envoy. Both are members of The Elders www.theElders.org. Here, they explore the events taking place in the Middle East and North Africa and the positive outcomes for freedom of expression the peoples' revolutions will bring.
Peter Englund is the Permanent Secretary of the Swedish Academy for the Nobel Prize for Literature. He has joined the World Press Freedom Day campaign this year to highlight the plight of WAN-IFRA's 2011 Golden Pen of Freedom laureate, Dawit Isaak, incarcerated without charge for nearly a decade in a notorious Eritrean jail. In his essay, Peter Englund explores how the right to dissent and question strengthens a nation, and that this universal right can not be taken for granted. Read more.
David C. Drummond joined Google in 2002, initially as Vice President of Corporate Development. Today as Senior Vice President and Chief Legal Officer, he leads Google's global teams for legal, government relations, corporate development and new business development. Here, he writes exclusive for WAN-IFRA on the potential and pitfalls of free expression technology. Read more.
As a journalist for the Ciudad Juárez-based El Diario newspaper in the North of Mexico, Rocío Gallegos has been a direct witness to the increase of violence against journalists in the region. In the past three years, two journalists for El Diario have been killed by drug-cartels and since 2000 more than 64 journalists have been killed throughout the country. The armed conflict between organised crime and government forces in the region is having serious consequences on journalism. “In Mexico, we’re living a war”, explained Gallegos to WAN-IFRA. The newspaper drew worldwide attention with a 2010 editorial that directly addressed the traffickers, asking them "What do you want from us?” Read more.
Najam Sethi is the Publisher of the Friday Times and the Daily Times in Pakistan and is the 2009 laureate of WAN-IFRA's Golden Pen of Freedom. Najam Sethi advocates liberal and secular ideas in a country too-often torn apart by religious extremism. He strives for the defence and promotion of press freedom under difficult circumstances and constant personal danger. Here he discusses the problems and prospects of new media in his region and beyond. Read more.
"Bare Expression" - an exclusive World Press Freedom Day article by renowned Tunisian writer Taoufik Ben Brik, an outspoken critic of ousted president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali's regime who served time in jail on trumped-up charges as a way of silencing him. Here, Taoufik Ben Brik explores the very essence of freedom of expression, even if your freedom has been stripped away by a government who does everything in its power to silence its citizens. Read more.
Trevor Ncube is Executive Chairman of the Zimbabwe Independent and The Standard, and Chief Executive of M&G Media Ltd. He has received numerous awards for his activities promoting press freedom and in his essay he argues how newspapers, despite changing technology, will continue to play their watchdog role. Read more.
Eric Chinje currently leads the Global Media Program at the World Bank Institute (WBI) and, in that capacity, has launched the IMAGE (Independent Media for Accountability, Governance and Empowerment) Network and Academy to build a corps of development journalists in the Bank’s client countries. Here, Eric Chinje argues that mass media has a central role in determining the human condition. Read more.
The World Editors Forum is the organisation within the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers devoted to newspaper editors worldwide. Here, President Erik Bjerager and Vice President Marcel van Lingen argue that for most of us, freedom of the press is something we need to learm. Read more.
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