Within the framework of World Press Freedom Day, established by the United Nations General Assembly, which is celebrated annually every May 3, the Mexican and Central American organization ARTICLE 19, which promotes and defends the advancement of the rights of freedom of expression and access to information for all people, prepares parallel events to those organized by UNESCO.
Thus, on May 3 and 4, ARTICLE 19 will offer 6 conferences spread over both days, some of which will be face-to-face in New York City, free of charge and for which it is necessary to register in advance, and some that can be followed via the web.
The first one: Women journalists: How can their resilience influence the design of public policies around the world?
This conference will be led by Mexican journalist Carmen Aristegui, who recently won the "2023 World Press Freedom Hero" award, and Colombian journalist Jineth Bedoya, who is also a strong activist against gender violence.
Both will be presented at the Ford Foundation Center for Social Justice, located at 320 E 43rd St, in New York, from 11:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m. Eastern Time, for which it is necessary pre register.
The event, which will be entirely in Spanish, will talk about how women journalists face twice the risk of their male counterparts, just for being journalists and for being women.
In 2022 alone, ARTICLE 19 recorded 178 attacks against women journalists in Mexico, while the Foundation for Press Freedom recorded 44 attacks against women journalists in Colombia perpetrated online.
In this side event, Bedoya and Aristegui will talk about how they have weathered violence from public officials, society, and even colleagues, and how public policies could learn from their work and resistance to better protect journalists around the world.
The panel “Surveillance against the press: When when illegal espionage is more beneficial for the State than protecting human rights” is added to that conference. The New York City Bahá?í Center will serve as a space to discuss the impacts of illegal surveillance on journalists, as well as reflect on a series of actions that were planned that ultimately resulted in a world in which illegal State surveillance on journalists had been reduced.
On May 3, but in a closed manner, a working group will focus on the "Contribution to the Regional Dialogue on Content Moderation."
This event will have the objective of socializing the main findings of an investigation carried out within the framework of the UNESCO Social Networks for Peace project in Colombia in relation to social networks and the regulatory framework that addresses the moderation of illegal content or that hinders democracy ?in accordance with international human rights law and applicable jurisprudence?; and convene key regional stakeholders to discuss how the findings can contribute to and inform the regional debate on content moderation and freedom of expression.
To close the program on May 3, those interested will be able to join a webinar on SLAPPs ? strategic demand against public participation? in Serbian,
Organized and broadcast by the channel Media Freedom Rapid Response YouTube and moderated by Roberta Taveri, head of the Freedom of the Press Program in Europe, the threat to pluralist public debate in that region of the world will be discussed.
On Thursday, May 4, specialists will hold the meeting "Latin America: Violence, repression and resistance of the press and the Shadow Report of Voces del Sur, 2022" at the Open Society Foundation in New York, for which the online enrollment.
Subsequently, the launch of the report “How do the courts respond to SLAPPs? Analysis of selected court decisions from around the world. This will be in English and will take place in the MLK Conference Room 527, Riverside Church, of Columbia University.
These events are alternatives to those that will be carried out by UNESCO in New York, headquarters of the United Nations.
You may be interested in: They recognize the Mexican Carmen Aristegui as "World Hero of Press Freedom" 2023
