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UN / WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY
STORY: UN / WORLD PRESS FREEDOM DAY
TRT: 02:19
SOURCE: UNIFEED
RESTRICTIONS: NONE
LANGUAGES: ENGLISH / FRENCH / NATS
DATELINE: 05 MAY 2023, NEW YORK CITY / FILE
RECENT, NEW YORK CITY
1. Wide shot, exterior United Nations Headquarters
05 MAY 2023, NEW YORK CITY
2. Wide shot, General Assembly Hall
3. Wide shot, UNESCO Director-General Audrey Azoulay at the GA podium
4. SOUNDBITE (French) Audrey Azoulay, Director-General, United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO):
“Freedom of the press is something that reveals the state of our societies. When it regresses it is all the rights that do regress with it. When there's a regression, there's a regression of the debates within society and they are undermined.”
5. Wide shot, delegates
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Audrey Azoulay, Director-General, United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO):
“With the advent of the digital era, the entire information landscape has changed, of course. Digital platforms have given us countless new ways for us to inform and express ourselves. But they're also providing fertile ground for those who sow disinformation and conspiracy theories. We find ourselves at a new crossroads. Our current path is leading us away from informed public debates, away from the very notion of a shared reality on which it depends, a path towards ever more polarization.”
7. Med shot, delegates
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Audrey Azoulay, Director-General, United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO):
“We need more than ever, professional, free, independent journalism, a press that deciphers discloses and decodes and it's up to us collectively to ensure its continued existence.”
9. Wide shot, Azoulay walks away
10. Wide shot, delegates applauding
11. Wide shot, Secretary-General António Guterres on screen
12. SOUNDBITE (English) António Guterres, Secretary-General, United Nations:
“In every corner of the world, freedom of the press is under attack. Truth is threatened by disinformation and hate speech, seeking to blur the lines between fact and fiction, between science and conspiracy. The increased concentration of the media industry into the hands of a few, the financial collapse of scores of independent news organizations, and the increase of national laws and regulations that stifle journalists are further expanding censorship and threatening freedom of expression.”
13. Wide shot, GA
Ahead of World Press Freedom Day, celebrated annually on 3 May, UNESCO’s Director-General, Audrey Azoulay, TODAY (2 May) said, when freedom of the press regresses “it is all the rights that do regress with it,” and “when there's a regression, there's a regression of the debates within society and they are undermined.”
Azulay said, “digital platforms have given us countless new ways for us to inform and express ourselves. But they're also providing fertile ground for those who sow disinformation and conspiracy theories.”
She said, “we find ourselves at a new crossroads. Our current path is leading us away from informed public debates, away from the very notion of a shared reality on which it depends, a path towards ever more polarization.”
The UNESCO Chief said, “we need more than ever, professional, free, independent journalism, a press that deciphers discloses and decodes and it's up to us collectively to ensure its continued existence.”
She called for greater action to ensure that information can remain a public good, noting that UNESCO is supporting some 20 countries to develop educational policies in media and information literacy in the digital era.
The agency also organized a major global conference in Paris in February to discuss draft global guidelines for regulating digital platforms, which will be published later this year.
A 2021 report revealed that three out of four women journalists have been the victim of online harassment, prompting UNESCO to issue recommendations for digital platforms to step up protection.
Secretary-General António Guterres, in a video message said, “in every corner of the world, freedom of the press is under attack. Truth is threatened by disinformation and hate speech, seeking to blur the lines between fact and fiction, between science and conspiracy. The increased concentration of the media industry into the hands of a few, the financial collapse of scores of independent news organizations, and the increase of national laws and regulations that stifle journalists are further expanding censorship and threatening freedom of expression.”
The focus this year is on the connection between press freedom and overall human rights.
Last year, 86 journalists were killed, mainly outside war zones.
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