Article
Windhoek+30 Declaration: Information as a Public Good
Participants at the UNESCO World Press Freedom Day Global Conference, held in Windhoek, Namibia from 29 April – 3 May 2021 adopted the on press freedom, describing information as a public good.
The Declaration calls upon all governments to create positive enabling environments for freedom of expression and access to information, online and offline, in line with international guarantees of these rights. It urges governments to ensure a free, independent and pluralistic media, through adopting appropriate legal measures in a transparent manner and following adequate public consultation, guaranteeing the exercise of journalism free of governmental interference, promoting universal access to the Internet and taking measures to reinforce the safety of journalists.
It also calls upon governments to take effective steps to nurture a diversity of viable public, private and community media, and implement specific policies, along with relevant safeguards, to promote the production of independent, quality journalism, with the aim of ensuring people’s access to relevant, diverse and reliable information.
The Declaration further calls on UNESCO and other intergovernmental organisations to reinforce cooperation with governments and civil society organisations in order to safeguard and enhance guarantees for the full exercise of the right to information and freedom of expression.
Press freedom, independence and pluralism remain major goals to guarantee information as a public good that serves as a shared resource for the whole of humanity.
Thirty years ago, in Windhoek, African journalists drew up the historic text (Windhoek Declaration), which then became a universal declaration calling for a free, independent and pluralistic press and gave birth to World Press Freedom Day. Since the signing of the Windhoek declaration in 1991, the world has changed significantly with new and historic challenges to freedom of expression. These media challenges include the ongoing attacks on journalists, the viral spread of false information online and the weakening of traditional media all of which have worsened by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The Windhoek +30 Declaration thus cements the ideals of the 1991 Declaration and calls for press freedom, independency and pluralism. It upholds press freedom, as a crucial component of the right to freedom of expression, as enshrined in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and underlines that an independent, pluralistic and free press is essential to the development and maintenance of democracy and to economic development.
