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GFMD welcomes UNESCO’s adoption of Windhoek+30 Declaration on Information as a Public Good

193 member states attending the 41st session of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) General Conference adopted, by acclamation, the Namibian government’s proposed resolution, which calls for the adoption of the Windhoek+30 Declaration on Information as a Public Good.

Author: Olga Komarova | 19. November 2021

Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD) warmly welcomes UNESCO’s adoption of the Windhoek+30 Declaration on Information as a Public Good on November 18, 2021, and calls for its urgent implementation.

The declaration makes targeted recommendations for governments; UNESCO and other intergovernmental organisations; technology companies; as well as journalists, media outlets, civil society and academia. It calls for collective collaborative action to address the “severe economic crisis which is posing an existential threat to independent news media worldwide”. 

GFMD particularly welcomes the declaration’s calls

The adoption of the Windhoek+30 Declaration on Information as a Public Good is a vindication for GFMD and our members who have long called for renewed vigour and agreement on collective action to respond to the crises facing independent journalism and public interest media.

(See for example GFMD’s emergency appeal to support journalism and media in 2020 which was signed by 180 journalism and media support organisations and addresses many of the issues addressed in the declaration.)

GFMD and our members will continue to work with UNESCO and all other stakeholders to support the activities, collaboration and cooperation necessary to achieve the declaration’s ambitious goals.

About the Windhoek+30 Declaration on Information as a Public Good

The Windhoek+30 Declaration was drafted and first adopted at UNESCO’s World Press Freedom Day Global Conference in Namibia on 3 May 2021 marking 30 years since the 1991 Declaration of Windhoek on Promoting an Independent and Pluralistic African Press. 

The 1991 declaration was “a catalyst for the proclamation of World Press Freedom Day, and as an inspiration for ongoing action to promote and protect freedom of expression, free, independent and pluralistic media, and access to information around the world”.

The resolution to adopt the Windhoek+30 Declaration declaration was proposed by the Namibian Government and accepted by the 193 member UNESCO member states present at the 41st session of the UNESCO General Conference in Paris on November 18, 2021.


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