Washington D.C., United States of America, Sunday 31 May 2015
For Immediate Release

A resolution issued by the Board of WAN-IFRA, meeting on the eve of the 67th World News Media Congress, 22nd World Editors Forum and 25th World Advertising Forum in Washington D.C., also called for greater solidarity within the news industry to propose solutions that improve safety and protection for all journalists, and to work together to support media professionals working in unstable and unsafe environments as a means of strengthening press freedom worldwide.

"WAN-IFRA calls on governments worldwide to actively support the United Nations Plan of Action on the Safety of Journalists and the Issue of Impunity and encourages support organisations to work more closely with media companies to address the gaps in training, equipment and expertise that could contribute to reducing dangers," said the Board of WAN-IFRA, the global organisation for the world's press.

The resolution acknowledged the tragic statistics that show 1127 journalists have been killed in the line of duty since 1992.

The WAN-IFRA Board acknowledged that over 50-percent of these deaths involved journalists working in print media, and that in the vast majority of instances, those killed were local journalists.

The full resolution can be read at http://www.wan-ifra.org/node/132608/

WAN-IFRA issued four other resolutions:

• Calling for the Release of Golden Pen Laureates and All Jailed Journalists
  http://www.wan-ifra.org/node/132612/
• Calling on Venezuela and Ecuador to Respect the Independent Press
  http://www.wan-ifra.org/node/132611/

• Calling for the Turkish Authorities to Respect Independent Media
  http://www.wan-ifra.org/node/132610/
• Calling for Greater Support to Media in Fragile States
  http://www.wan-ifra.org/node/132609/

Around 900 chief editors, publishers, CEOs, managing directors and other senior newspaper and news publishing executives are attending the World News Media Congress, World Editors Forum and World Advertising Forum in Washington D.C. this week.

Live updates will be available on the conference blog at http://www.wan-ifra.org/congress_blog or via Twitter: live coverage @NewsConf, curated updates @NewspaperWorld and via the hashtags #wnc15 and #Editors15

WAN-IFRA, based in Paris, France, and Darmstadt, Germany, with subsidiaries in Singapore and India, is the global organisation of the world's newspapers and news publishers. It represents more than 18,000 publications, 15,000 online sites and over 3,000 companies in more than 120 countries. Its core mission is to defend and promote press freedom, quality journalism and editorial integrity and the development of prosperous businesses.

Inquiries to: Andrew Heslop, Director of Press Freedom, WAN-IFRA, 96 bis, rue Beaubourg, 75003 Paris France. Tel: +33 1 47 42 85 00. Fax: +33 1 42 78 92 33. E-mail: andrew.heslop@wan-ifra.org