GFMD highlights sustainability at World Press Freedom Conference 2020

This year’s virtual World Press Freedom Conference (WPFC) is taking place online from 9-10 December 2020, and GFMD is taking a front-and-center role in ensuring that journalism and news sustainability is on the agenda. Hosted by UNESCO and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs in The Hague, WPFC this year will be different from typical online formats. This year, the conference is being organised as a TV show where you can tune into different channels and  join dynamic discussions and panels. 

GFMD, together with BBC Media Action, Internews, and WAN-IFRA, is organising the session “Supporting Journalism Sustainability: Immediate Solutions to an Urgent Problem,” which will be held on Thursday, 10 December from 10:45 – 11:45 CET. 

The panel will be moderated by Jodie Ginsberg, CEO of Internews Europe. The rest of the panel will feature:

• Ambassador Anna Brandt – Permanent Representative of Sweden to the OECD and UNESCO, and chair of UNESCO’s International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC) 
• Fatemah Farag – Founder and Director of Welad Elbalad Media, MENA Director for WAN-IFRA’s Women in News Program, and World Editors Forum Board Member 
• Leilah Bbaale – News Editor at Spice FM Uganda
• Nishant Lalwani – Managing Director at Luminate, and co-lead on the International Fund for Public Interest Media 

They will discuss threats faced by journalism and news media stemming from decreasing public funding and revenues for journalism and news media, reinforced not only by the COVID-19 pandemic, but also by the rise of authoritarian governments – hindering the generation of public funding – around the world. The session will explore the implications of mounting challenges for media development and discuss options for enhanced support to journalism and media survival. Being experts from different fields from across the journalism support and media development sector, the speakers will explore possibilities for enhanced support to journalism and media in order to guarantee its survival. 

For those who have never attended a WPFC before, this can be an excellent networking opportunity and insight into the landscape of media and journalism around the globe. The conference is a space where journalists, media companies, human rights defenders, policymakers, academics, NGOs, and those who are interested in press freedom can come together. Among others, keynote speakers of the WPFC will include Christiana Amanpour, Maria Ressa, Amal Clooney, Carmen Aristegui, Lina Attalah, and Matthew Caruana Galizia. 

For more information about the programme as well as guidance about how to register for World Press Freedom Conference 2020, please visit: https://wpfc2020.com

The session will be recorded and made public for those who are not able to attend, and we will post the main takeaways of the session on the GFMD website. 

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