Free press under pressure: the value of voices of freedom

Dear readers of the SWI Democracy Newsletter,

It is an important pillar of our free society – and a prerequisite for us to provide you with daily reports, analyses and impressions from Switzerland and around the world without anyone telling us or limiting what we are allowed to write about and how.

It is the universal right to obtain and disseminate information and to express oneself freely: freedom of the press. But it is under pressure like never before in the last two decades.

Today, May 3, is International Press Freedom Day, as adopted by the UN General Assembly in 1993. Since then, the basis for measuring press freedom has been the “Windhoek Declaration”, which calls the “establishment of an independent, pluralistic and free press” the “cornerstone of democracy and economic development” and allows organisations like Reporters Without Borders to take annual measurements of press freedom.

These assessments have recently turned out to be increasingly negative – and press freedom is now classified as “good” in only eight of 179 countries. Even Switzerland does not get a “good” grade but is one of 39 countries that fall in “satisfactory” category. The reason for this is decreasing media diversity and introduction of new laws that restrict press freedom.

On the occasion of International Press Freedom Day, we would therefore like to draw your attention to the “Global Voices of Freedom” articles that we have published in recent months – and with these voices from various countries and continents of the world, we would like to illustrate why press freedom is such a valuable asset that is worth standing up for every day – whether as a reporter or reader.     

Yours sincerely

Bruno Kaufmann, Global Correspondent of the SWI Democracy Desk

A selection of articles from our Global Voices of Freedom series.