This year’s World Press Freedom Day on May 3 will shine a spotlight on the role of media in elections and democracy.
There can be no democracy without freedom of the press. The media’s role is to guarantee access to free and pluralistic information, independent from political and economic powers. This is particularly true in times of elections when the stakes are so important. Today, however, citizens’ trust in media discourses is eroding dangerously. Media face a series of challenges which, in the long-term, could undermine their role as a cornerstone of democracy. These range from disinformation, the abuse of social media, growing concentration of media ownership and internet shutdowns to the jailing of journalists and violence against media workers in the most autocratic regimes.
To mark World Press Freedom Day, the IFJ has gathered testimonies from journalists on the front line of covering elections and standing up for media freedom. From Kiev to Kinshasa, from Brussels to Manila, they tell different stories but they share a common concern over the worldwide increase in attacks on freedom of the press.