Women make up half of the world’s population but receive only 26 per cent of media coverage, according to the latest UN-backed Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP) report, the world’s largest study on gender representation in news media.
Legal reforms in Serbia must be accompanied by the effective implementation of laws to counter dangerous rhetoric against minorities, journalists and activists, UN independent human rights expert Irene Khan said on Thursday, concluding an official visit to the country.
If you like political cartoons, chances are that you’ve come across the work of Patrick Chappatte, in leading international newspapers and journals.
In addition to his prolific output, Mr. Chappate is also president of the Freedom Cartoonists Foundation; to coincide with World Press Freedom Day 2022 on 3 May, it’s unveiled a new exhibition in Geneva, featuring drawings by other top illustrators who take great risks to stand up to authority.
Sensitizing public opinion to the question of Palestine, and promoting a peaceful settlement to the decades-long conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, are among the goals of the 2021 UN International Media Seminar on Peace in the Middle East, which began on Tuesday.
At least 59 media workers have been killed this year, four of them women, the UN said on Wednesday, in a call to stand up for access to information and factual reporting “as a public good”.
As the world fights the deadly COVID-19 pandemic – the most challenging crisis we have faced since the Second World War – we are also seeing another epidemic -- a dangerous epidemic of misinformation.
Around the world, people are scared. They want to know what to do and where to turn for advice.
This is a time for science and solidarity.
Yet the global ‘misinfo-demic’ is spreading.
Harmful health advice and snake-oil solutions are proliferating.
Falsehoods are filling the airwaves.
Wild conspiracy theories are infecting the Internet.
It’s comfortable to endorse ideas similar to our own, but what’s the value of communicating between, rather than simply within communities?
Editor of the BBC’s Crossing Divides multiplatform season, Emily Kasriel, was at UN Headquarters during high level week, and says that during times of charged conversation, the media can play a pivotal role in healing divisions.
As the beauty director of digital media giant BuzzFeed, Essence Gant makes sure its content is inclusive and sensitive – helping to balance representation and reflect diversity.
Growing up in the southern US state of Georgia, she recalls that she was surrounded by people who were “always validating her as a black woman”.
It was only later, she said in an interview with UN News, that she realized how under-represented people of colour were in the media.
Marking World Press Freedom Day on Friday, the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) is launching a campaign highlighting the vital role journalists play in maintaining a healthy democracy.
Speaking to UN News’s Li Zhang, UNESCO media chief, George Papagiannis, underlined that “communities need to have a free, independent and vibrant press” so that citizens can “participate intelligently in their civic duties” especially when it comes to election time.
At a time when disinformation and mistrust of the news media is growing, a free press is “essential for peace, justice, sustainable development and human rights”, said the UN Secretary-General, in his message for World Press Freedom Day, marked on Friday.
