The UN General Assembly declared May 03 to be ' World Press Freedom Day ' to raise awareness of the importance of freedom of the Press and remind governments of their duty to respect and uphold the right to freedom of expression enshrined under Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and marking the anniversary of the Declaration of Windhoek,a statement of free press principles put together by African Newspaper Journalists in 1991
UNESCO marks World Press Freedom Day by conferring the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize on a deserving individual, organization or institution that has made an outstanding contribution to the defence and/or promotion of press freedom anywhere in the world, especially when this has been achieved in the face of danger.
Created in 1997, the prize is awarded on the recommendation of an independent jury of 14 news professionals. Names are submitted by regional and international NGO's working for press freedom and by UNESCO member states
The Prize is named in honour of Guillermo Cano Isaza,a Colombian Journalist who was assassinated in front of the offices of his newspaper,El Espectador in Bogota on Dec 17, 1986. Cano's writings had offended Colombia's powerful drug barons.
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