Jan Keulen underlines the need to fight for transparency, good communication and trusted information

Famous Dutch Media Expert Message on the eve of World Press Freedom Day 2020.

Dear friends and colleagues

I’m saluting you from The Netherlands. As a long time friend of the Rural Media Network Pakistan my thoughts are with you and the important work you’re doing. On World Press Freedom Day (3d of May) we celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom. Those principles are universal and based on the right to freedom of opinion and expression. According to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights it is each and everyone’s right “to hold opinions without interference, and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media regardless of frontiers.”

On the 3d of May we assess the situation of press freedom in our village, city and country. And we pay tribute to journalists who were injured or even lost their lives in the line of pursuing a story.

Independent, trusted journalism matters. This is even more true in times of a health crisis. Journalists can counter fake news and misinformation, spread crucial public health messages and encourage people to do the right thing not to get infected with the corona virus.

So it is especially in these days that my thoughts are with you: brave journalists in rural Pakistan. Please keep up the fight for transparency, good communication and trusted information.

 

Message to Rural Media Network Pakistan

 

    Jan Keulen

 

Former General Director

Doha Centre For Media Freedom

Former Regional Communication Officer

 MENA, Free Voice,The Netherlands