World Press Freedom Day in Central Asia 2015

29 April 2015

UNESCO Almaty Cluster Office in cooperation with Adil Soz (International Foundation for Protection of Freedom of Speech), Representative Office of the United Nations Department of Public Information (United Nations Information Office), Union of Journalists of Kazakhstan and the Freedom House Kazakhstan held award ceremony in respect of the public competition among cartoonists about the freedom of speech. Event took place on 30 April 2015 in the Central State Museum of the Republic of Kazakhstan in Almaty.

Worldwide the World Press Freedom Day is commemorated under the motto: Let Journalism Thrive! Towards Better Reporting, Gender Equality, & Media Safety in the Digital Age. All the events organized on this occasion are also dedicated to the celebration of the 70th anniversary of UNESCO and the United Nations.

More than 100 national celebrations take place each year to commemorate this Day. UNESCO leads the worldwide celebration by identifying the global themes, providing relevant guidance as well as organizing key events in different parts of world every year.

This international day was proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in 1993 following a Recommendation adopted at the 26th Session of UNESCO's General Conference in 1991. This in turn was a response to a call by African journalists who in 1991 produced the landmark Windhoek Declaration on media pluralism and independence.

On 30 April in the capital of Kyrgyzstan, Bishkek the Journalists' Public Association and Media Workers' Trade Union of Kyrgyz Republic conducted a discussion on the development of journalism in the digital age.

WPFD-2015, opening ceremony of cartoonists exchibition in the Central State Museum ©UNESCO Almaty

Statements and speeches delivered by individual speakers were separately published through the Journalists' of Kyrgyzstan social network.

On 23 April 2015 the Suleyman Demirel University (SDU) together with Al-Farabi Kazakh National University, KIMEP University and the International University of Ataturk-Ala-Too (Kyrgyzstan) held in the university campus located in Kaskelen city, satellite of Almaty the international conference Cultural Relationships: Journalism and Language in the Context of Education with the participation of more than 500 scientists and specialists. Individual sessions were organized at the conference, including the round table for 30 of Kazakh journalists and students to discuss the following topics:
- Journalism Languages for Development
- Communication in conflict and peace-building
- Freedom of speech, as the guarantee of country sustainable future
- Women portrayal in the print media content.

Botagoz Sedakhmetova, autor of the talk radio show the Foreigner, on Radiotochka.kz. It help eliminate cultural stereotypes, xenophobia and intolerance in society ©UNESCO Almaty

In Tajikistan the Public Association NANSMIT together with the National Union of Journalists and the Council for Mass Media of Tajikistan organized on 2 May the republican conference: New Challenges for media Freedom in Tajikistan in Dushanbe, and in the city of Khujand on 4 May. The conference were attended by 80 journalists, government officials: members of parliament, the presidential administration, the judiciary and international organizations. The conference will be supported by the OSCE, the European Union, Internews Network, Institute for War and Peace Reporting (IWPR).