Freedom of Expression and Exhibition on Safety of Journalists

UNESCO to hold International High Level Symposium on Freedom of Expression and Exhibition on Safety of Journalists

29-08-2008 (Paris)

On the occasion of 60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, UNESCO is organizing an International High Level Symposium on Freedom of Expression.

The right to freedom of opinion and expression is inscribed in number 19 of the 30 articles articulated in the Declaration and stipulates the following:

Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers.

The Symposium will take place on 29 October 2008 and will involve around 400 participants including Heads of State, government officials, policymakers, World Press Freedom Prize winners, as well as representatives of major non-governmental organizations and media professionals. It will provide a forum for debate and discussion of the challenges and opportunities that exist at the nexus of freedom of expression, dialogue, democracy and development.

In conjunction with the symposium, there will be a two-day exhibition on Safety of Journalists, organized in partnership with Reuters. UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura, and Anna Maria Busquets Cano, President of the Guillermo Cano Foundation, will inaugurate the event at UNESCO Headquarters in Paris.

The exhibition is intended to bring attention to and raise awareness about the difficult work and often unsafe conditions that many journalists face regularly in their function to deliver information from crisis points around the world.