Minister Champagne to participate in UNESCO World Press Freedom Day 2020 online event

May 3, 2020 - Ottawa, Ontario - Global Affairs Canada

The Honourable François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Foreign Affairs, will participate in a UNESCO World Press Freedom Day virtual event on press freedom and tackling disinformation taking place tomorrow.

The event will feature António Guterres, UN Secretary-General, Audrey Azoulay, UNESCO Director-General, Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, as well as political figures and representatives from the media, business and civil society.

The online UNESCO high-level dialogue will focus on the importance of press freedom and independent journalism to provide reliable, life-saving information during the COVID-19 pandemic.

This virtual event will be streamed live on May 4, 2020, at 11:00 am EDT through UNESCO's Facebook, Youtube and Twitter.

Quotes

“The COVID-19 crisis has shone a light on the role of a free and independent media. Members of the media on the frontline of this pandemic are quite literally saving lives by keeping people informed of the risks to their health, promoting proper health measures and countering false and misleading information. At a time like this, we must all recommit to promoting media freedom and to stand firm against efforts to undermine it.”

- François-Philippe Champagne, Minister of Foreign Affairs

Quick facts

Alongside the United Kingdom, Canada co-hosted the inaugural Global Conference for Media Freedom in July 2019, where the Media Freedom Coalition was formed. The coalition is a partnership of 36 countries and other stakeholders working together proactively to advocate for press freedom.
Canada is proud to co-chair the Media Freedom Coalition, together with the United Kingdom.
Canada is supporting efforts to promote media freedom through the Global Media Defence Fund, which is administered by UNESCO and issued its first call for proposals in April 2020.
Canada looks forward to hosting the second Global Conference for Media Freedom.

Associated links

Contacts

Syrine Khoury
Press Secretary
Office of the Minister of Foreign Affairs
[email protected]

Media Relations Office
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