UNESCO Confronts the Effects of Censorship for World Press Freedom Day

UNESCO reaffirms the essential role of information as a public good through a global communication campaign with DDB Paris. 

"The sovereignty of the people and the freedom of the press are two entirely correlative things," Alexis de Tocqueville. 

Some crises can act as revelators. 

What was striking during the Covid-19 crisis was this deep dependence on public goods such as water, transit, health infrastructure and equipment… 

Goods so common that we forget how vital they are. Information is one of those fundamental assets. The role of journalists in a society is to inform, investigate and denounce. More than just a right, press freedom is the sine qua none condition for any democracy. 

If people do not know what is happening in their society, if their leaders, if economic, moral or religious powers act under the veil of secrecy, no one is able to act. 

Through five symptomatic questions of today’s world and by confronting readers directly with the effects of censorship, UNESCO asks us about the individual and collective consequences of a lack of press freedom. 

Without this possibility to ask questions: those that annoy, those that disturb, we are all deprived of information, and by the same action.