2020 World Press Freedom Day Celebration

UNESCO

The 2020 World Press Free­dom Day is on Sat­ur­day, May 3. This day is man­dat­ed by UNESCO (Unit­ed Nations Edu­ca­tion­al, Sci­en­tif­ic and Cul­tur­al Orga­ni­za­tion) as a day to put press free­dom issues into focus — to edu­cate our com­mu­ni­ties about the impor­tant con­tri­bu­tion that free and inde­pen­dent media plays in society. 

As an orga­ni­za­tion, we’ve had the priv­i­lege for many years to hold an event around this time in hon­or of the hun­dreds of men and women who gath­er and report the news through­out the African con­ti­nent. This includes jour­nal­ists, blog­gers, activists, peo­ple in civ­il soci­ety, gov­ern­men­tal as well as non-gov­ern­men­tal orga­ni­za­tions, acad­e­mia, and more.

We had an event planned for Thurs­day, May 1. But as you well know, we are unable to meet because of the coro­n­avirus pan­dem­ic. How­ev­er, in lieu of that, our orga­ni­za­tion will do the following:

We will release via the Africa Agen­da YouTube Chan­nel, three video record­ings (Parts 1, 2, and 3) of our 2019 cel­e­bra­tion of the day held at the Pos­ner Cen­ter in Den­ver, as follows:

Thursday, April 30 at 6 p.m. MT ‑Part 1
-Welcome to our guests & an Interview with Dr. Luka Powanga, professor at Regis University, Denver.

Dis­cus­sion top­ic: The role of accu­rate report­ing dur­ing elec­tion cycles and impacts on lead­ing peace­ful tran­si­tions of pow­er or legit­i­mate re-elec­tion cam­paigns in African countries.

 Friday, May 1 at 6 p.m. MT  ‑Part 2 
-An Interview with Dr. Ben Bongang, professor at Savannah State University in Georgia.

Dis­cus­sion top­ic: How can African news and media out­lets cre­ate and build pro­fes­sion­al cred­i­bil­i­ty in high-pres­sure envi­ron­ments and in the age of social media influx, and how to engage African youth who make up the major­i­ty of pop­u­la­tions of African countries.

 Saturday, May 2 at 11 a.m. MT ‑Part 3
-A discussion with our audience about Press Freedom Issues Impacting the African Continent.

Dis­cus­sion top­ic: What pos­i­tive strides have been made in Africa regard­ing media access, afford­abil­i­ty, reg­u­la­to­ry pro­tec­tions, and free­doms of expression.

Also, check out our YouTube chan­nel for videos, already post­ed, from the 2014 and 2016 events held in Den­ver, Col­orado, USA.

Please let us know if you have any questions.

Again, stay safe!
Sin­cere­ly,

All of us at Africa Agenda