Celebration of World Press Freedom Day

Accra, April 29, GNA - The Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) will celebrate the 2011 World Press Freedom Day with a symposium and flag-raising at the Ghana International Press Centre on Tuesday, May 3.

The climax of the celebration will be the inauguration of an out-door internet browse house for journalists at the centre donated by Accra Brewery Limited who are also the main sponsors of the event.


A release signed by Mr Bright Kwame Blewu, General Secretary of GJA in Accra on Friday said the theme for the symposium and the global celebration is: 9321 Century Media: New Frontiers, New Barriers."


The Chairman of the National Media Commission, Mr Kabral Blay-Amihere will chair the symposium with the Minister of Information, Mr John Tia Akologu as the lead speaker, and also hoist the Ghana flag.


Other speakers at the symposium include the UNDP Resident representative and UN Co-ordinator who will present the message of the UN Secretary General and raise the UN flag. The Representative of UNESCO will present the message of the UNESCO Director General.

Representatives of media-related organisations and media stakeholders will participate at the symposium.


These are the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation, Ghana Independent Broadcasters Association, Ghana Community Radio Network, Private Newspaper Publishers Association of Ghana, and the Editors Forum, Ghana. The rest are the Institute of Public Relations, Ghana, the Media Foundation for West Africa, Media Training Institutions, the Coalition on the right to Information, National Communications Authority and the Ghana Trades Union Congress.


The release said the celebration would be rounded up on Friday, May 6, with a medical outreach programme for journalists and other media personnel at the Ghana International Press Centre by the Soviet-Trained Ghanaian Graduates Association. World Press Freedom Day; the day proclaimed by the UN General Assembly in 1993 is the anniversary of the Declaration of Windhoek, which acknowledges that media pluralism and press freedom are essential to development.