World Press Freedom Day

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World Press Freedom Day honours sacrifices around the world made for freedom of the press and reminds governments of their duty to respect and uphold the right to freedom of expression that is enshrined under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in 1993, the day is celebrated each year on 3 May, the anniversary of the Declaration of Windhoek, a statement of free press principles put together by African newspaper journalists in 1991.

UNESCO marks World Press Freedom Day by conferring the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize on a deserving individual, organization or institution that has made an outstanding contribution to the defence and/or promotion of press freedom anywhere in the world, especially when this has been achieved in the face of danger. Created in 1997, the prize is awarded on the recommendation of an independent jury of 14 news professionals. Names are submitted by regional and international non-governmental organizations working for press freedom, and by UNESCO member states.

The Prize is named in honour of Guillermo Cano Isaza, a Colombian journalist who was assassinated in front of the offices of his newspaper, El Espectador, in Bogotá, on 17 December 1986. Cano's writings had offended Colombia's powerful drug barons.

The 2006 Prize was awarded to Lebanese journalist May Chidiac, a popular television news presenter who survived an assassination attempt in Beirut on 25 September 2005. She lost her left hand and leg when a bomb strapped to her car detonated minutes after she got in. She has come to be seen as a symbol of freedom of expression in Lebanon, where the assassinations of two colleagues – columnist Samir Kassir and newspaper publisher Gebran Tueni – in 2005 shocked the nation.