Windhoek Declaration

The Windhoek Declaration for the Development of a Free, Independent and Pluralistic Press, the Windhoek Declaration for short, is a statement of press freedom principles by African newspaper journalists in 1991. The Declaration was produced at a UNESCO seminar, "Promoting an Independent and Pluralistic African Press," held in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia, from 29 April to 3 May 1991. The date of the Declaration's adoption, May 3, has subsequently been declared as World Press Freedom Day. The document has been viewed as widely influential, as the first in a series of such declarations around the world, and as a crucial affirmation of the international community's commitment to freedom of the press. Subsequently, several similar documents were drafted in other parts of the developing world: The Alma-Ata Declaration for central Asia, Sana'a Declaration for the Middle East, and the Santiago Declaration for Latin America and the Caribbean. At the tenth anniversary of the Windhoek Declaration, however, the United Nations jubilee statement noted the fragility of press freedom in the face of political violence or authoritarianism. A New Communication Strategy Since it was formally approved by the UNESCO Member States during the 28th Session of the General Conference (November 1995), the Windhoek Declaration has become a major reference in the United Nations system. It is part of the New Communication Strategy decided by UNESCO's General Conference during its 25th Session in November 1989, at the same time as the fall of the Berlin Wall. This new strategy de facto distanced itself from the New World Information and Communication Order (NWICO) which was subject to controversies within the Organization in the 1980s. These controversies have divided UNESCO and caused the United States and the United Kingdom to withdraw from the Organisation (in 1984 and 1985). The NWICO was also subject to oppositions from several professional media organizations, which saw in the New Order a means allowing states to control the media with the justification, among others, to encourage wider and better balanced dissemination of information between North and South. The 1989 New Communication Strategy stresses that this can only be reached “without any obstacle to freedom of expression” in accordance with the fundamental purpose of UNESCO to promote the “free flow of ideas by word and image”.