WPFD: Making Information Count

The United Nations General Assembly has declared May 3 each year as the World Press Freedom Day (WPFD). The day is observed to raise consciousness of the significance of the liberty of the press and remind governments of their obligation to respect and uphold the right to freedom of expression. It is also a day of reflection among media specialists about issues of press freedom and professional ethics.
WPFD has its origin in a UNESCO conference in Windhoek, Namibia, in 1991. The 2021 global event focuses on modern-day issues for freedom of expression, access to information and the public service role of journalism within the changed communications ecosystem. The day additionally serves as a reminder that in numerous countries publications are censored, fined, suspended and closed down, while journalists, editors and publishers are harassed, attacked, detained or even murdered for publishing the truth.
This year’s WPFD with the theme: “Information As A Public Good” serves as a call to confirm the importance of cherishing information as a public good, and exploring what can be done in the production, distribution and reception of content to reinforce journalism, and to enhance transparency and empowerment while leaving no one behind. The subject matter is of urgent relevance to all countries across the world. It recognises the changing communications system that is impacting our health, our human rights, democracies and sustainable improvement.
In advocating the notion of “Information As A Public Good”, WPFD 2021 highlights the important distinction between information and other kinds of communications content such as disinformation, hate speech, entertainment and data. The aim is to draw interest to the unique position of journalism in generating news as confirmed information in the public interest, and to how this relies upon on a wider ecosystem that allows information as a public good.
While the 1991 Windhoek conference focused on print media, the 10th anniversary in 2001 highlighted communications through the airwaves, giving rise to the African Charter on Broadcasting. In 2011, for the 20th anniversary, UNESCO supported a conference that put the focus on people’s right to seek and receive information which culminated in 2019 in the UN’s recognition of 28 September as the International Day for Universal Access to Information.
In 2021, the current context requires an interrogation of the information environment as a step towards figuring out what situations are needed for communications that favour the UN Sustainable Development aspiration to enhance public access to information and essential freedoms.
First, there has been a rise of pluralistic media environments in most countries of the world because of national liberalisation and enlargement of transnational media through satellite or subscription. Nonetheless, many news media outlets are facing considerable economic demanding situations today.
Secondly, significant technological advances have multiplied the opportunities for people to speak and access information. At the same time, major digital divides remain between genders, and between/within regions and countries. A handful of internet companies provide billions of users across the world with communications services but are also criticised for enabling hate and disinformation rather than journalism, as well as for vulnerable transparency and responsibility on how they use their gatekeeping power.
The third change since 1991 has been improved legal recognition of the right to access information. While in 1991 only 12 countries were geared up with laws guaranteeing the rights of citizens to access government information, this number rose to 40 countries in 2009, culminating in 126 countries in 2019. Besides the availability of official information, free and independent journalism is a major factor in generating information for the service of humanity.
Putting collectively these three developments, the result today is a proliferation of information that co-exists with many other types of content in an increasingly digital communications sphere, including the challenges of disinformation and hate speech. The production of local information, such as local news, is under great stress. At the same time, we face a complicated abundance of content that drowns out even those facts that are produced and circulated at both global and local levels.
The significance of easy access to reliable information, particularly through journalism, has been validated by the Covid-19 pandemic. In times of crisis such as this, information can be a matter of life or death. This has proved to be accurate in the face of the Covid-19 ‘disinfodemic’, a combination of misinformation and disinformation that has spread across the world sowing confusion, discord and division. The lack of publicly available reliable data and information has created a vacuum for potentially harmful content and misleading conspiracy theories mostly spread online.
Covid-19 public health crisis has shed light on the vital role played by free and independent media. The output of news media remains a powerful source of information that people access. In this way, media workers everywhere have significantly contributed to our understanding of the pandemic by making information more accessible, scientific facts comprehensible to the public, supplying regularly updated data, and engaging in fact-checking.
As Covid-19 outbreak continues to ravage global health landscape, Nigeria is not an exception. Low risk perception, infodemic and consequent non-compliance to pharmaceutical interventions are among factors exacerbating the outbreak. WHO should collaborate with the Nigerian Centre for Disease Control, (NCDC) to build the capacity of frontline information managers on impactful and credible stories for prevention of Covid-19.
Regrettably, Nigeria is now one of West Africa’s most dangerous and difficult countries for journalists, who are often spied on, attacked, arbitrarily arrested or even killed. For example, two journalists were shot dead while covering the Islamic Movement in Nigeria protests – one in July 2019 and the other in January 2020 – without any proper investigation with the aim of identifying those responsible. This is unacceptable and amounts to intimidation of journalists in the country.
Hence, Nigerian journalists should utilise the WPFD to be formidable in discharging their duties. They have to be thorough in investigation and factual in their reports and presentation. They must not compromise their safety and security, but imbibe the nuggets of surviving in a risky environment such as that of Covid-19. Consequently, the government is advised to continually share information with journalists, mainly through the daily media briefing.