Chile and the Gabriela Mistral Cultural Center, received for the first time in Latin America the ceremony that commemorates the International Day of Press Freedom organized by the United Nations for Education, Science and Culture (Unesco). This event will take place between today, Thursday and Saturday, May 4.
The ceremony began with a poetic and musical number, and then gave way to the delivery of the Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Award. In honor of the Colombian journalist and director of the newspaper El Espectador murdered in 1987 by two hitmen of Pablo Escobar.
UNESCO presented the award to Palestinian journalists covering the conflict in Gaza. Reporter Naser Abubaker, president of the Palestinian Union of Journalists, received the award on behalf of his colleagues.
The High Representative of the European Union, within the framework of the commemoration of World Press Freedom Day, sent a statement in which he assured that “like our eyes and ears on the ground, journalists must be protected at all times and in everywhere”.
In this sense, the EU reported that it “strongly condemns all acts of violence, including threats, against journalists for exercising their profession, whether perpetrated by States, organized groups or individuals” and added that “there must be no impunity for such crimes.” , regardless of where they take place.”
In line with the award given by UNESCO, the EU High Representative assured that “journalists and media workers who report on armed conflicts must be protected in accordance with international humanitarian law.”
In that sense, he highlighted that “too many journalists have lost their lives in recent months while bringing us news from Gaza” and reported that also those who “continue to run danger daily while reporting on Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine, as well as as well as the conflicts in Myanmar, Sudan and other places.”
The EU expressed concern about “the practice of denying independent media access to conflict zones” as a means of controlling the “information space and restricting public access to objective and fact-based information.”
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