Note to Correspondents

world press freedom day to be observed at united nations on monday, 3 may

Panel to Discuss ‘Reporting and Under-reporting:  Who Decides?’

The United Nations Department of Public Information (DPI) is organizing an observance of World Press Freedom Day to take place on Monday, 3 May 2004, in Conference Room 2 at United Nations Headquarters, in the context of the twenty-sixth annual session of the United Nations Committee on Information.

The morning programme is divided into two parts.  The opening segment will begin with statements by Secretary-General Kofi Annan; the Chairman of the United Nations Committee on Information, Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury (Bangladesh); the Director of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) Office in New York, Vivian Launey; and the President of the United Nations Correspondents Association (UNCA), Tony Jenkins.  It will be followed by a panel discussion on “Reporting and Under-reporting:  Who Decides?” with participants representing the media, non-governmental organizations and the United Nations.  They will speak on the role and responsibilities of the world media in covering global issues and examine whether it is perception of audience interest, commercial considerations, lack of resources or other reasons that determine editorial choices and the extent of news coverage.

Panellists will include Alexander Boraine, President of the International Centre for Transitional Justice; Tony Jenkins, the President of UNCA and Correspondent for Expresso of Portugal; James H. Ottaway, Jr., Chairman of the World Press Freedom Committee; E.R. Shipp, Pulitzer Prize-winning Columnist for the New York Daily News; and Danilo Türk, Assistant Secretary-General in the UN Department of Political Affairs.  The programme will be moderated by the Under-Secretary-General for Communications and Public Information, Shashi Tharoor.

The topic of the panel discussion is linked to the release of a list of “Ten Stories the World Should Know More About”, announced at a press conference at UN Headquarters in New York by Mr. Tharoor on Friday, 30 April 2004.  Seen as an effort to garner more attention for critical issues, than to be critical of the press, the list includes a number of humanitarian emergencies, as well as conflict or post-conflict situations, that are, in the words of Mr. Tharoor, “compelling stories that, at this point in time, we believe are in need of more media attention”.

In addition to the morning programme, the DPI, in cooperation with the United Nations Staff Recreation Council Film Society, is organizing a lunchtime screening of Jonathan Demme’s film “The Agronomist” in observance of World Press Freedom Day.  The film tells the story of a Haitian journalist, Jean Dominique, who became a national hero for championing the cause of Haiti's poor and powerless.  As owner and operator of his nation's first independent radio station, Radio Haiti-Inter, Dominique fought tirelessly for press freedom and democracy until he was assassinated in April 2000.  The screening will take place in the Dag Hammarskjöld Library Auditorium from 12:45 p.m. to 2:30 p.m.

For more information on the observance of World Press Freedom Day:  (212) 963-1072.

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