PAGBABAGO
When the international community celebrates World Press Freedom Day (WPD) on May 3, it will be facing rising conflict and violence, threats to health and the environment, as well as continuing disinformation and misinformation. Adding to these challenges is the growing inequality between those who have and those bereft of the benefits of development.
This year it will be held at the UN headquarters in New York to mark the 30 years since the UN General Assembly’s decision proclaiming an international day for press freedom. This year’s theme is “Shaping a Future of Rights: Freedom of expression as a driver for all other human rights,” signifying the enabling element of freedom of expression to protect all other human rights.
In the four fundamental freedoms outlined in the preamble of the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, freedom of speech comes first as it is seen as the driver of the other three – freedom of belief, freedom from fear and freedom from want.
As this year’s document on WPD states, “without a free flow of information and the help of the media in the effort, most cases of malpractice, corruption, and human rights violations would remain hidden.
We are facing a world of persistent inequalities between the center and the periphery. Thus, in addition to remembering journalists and communicators who have risked their lives to provide essential information to the public, we would like to also recall the memory of those who have labored to bring about effective delivery of social justice and protection of human rights.
A person that comes to mind is the late Julius Nyrere, former president of Tanzania who was a Manila visitor in early 1986. He had just retired and chose to visit our country to share his philosophy on social justice. I had the privilege of listening to him during one of his lectures where he focused on the need to close the gaps that exist in our world today. This is “the division of mankind into those who are satiated and those who are hungry, those with power and those without power, those who dominate and those who are dominated, those who exploit and those who are exploited, and this minority which is well fed and has secured control over the world’s wealth has distinguishing characteristic – the adoption of the Christian religion.”
Nyrere, who is a Christian, noted that poverty is not a real problem of the modern world because there is plenty of knowledge and resources to enable us to overcome poverty. The real problem lies in the yawning gaps in wealth and power.
Nyrere was described by the UN as the “World Hero of Social Justice” for having created political institutions that are participatory, and free of income inequalities.
The UN document for 2023 WPD notes that “through various platforms, journalists and media workers can reach wide audiences and inform them about their fundamental freedoms and how to exercise them. Through their journalistic investigations and fact-checking, criminal activities and wrongdoings that affect the human rights of citizens can be redressed.”
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