The Sri Lanka Press Institute (SLPI) marks the World Press Freedom Day today in concurrence with UNESCO's commemoration of 30 years of the Windhoek Declaration under the theme Strengthening Journalism to advance Democracies; Information as a Public Good.
The completion of 30 years of the landmark Windhoek Declaration for the development of free independent and pluralistic press also sheds light on our own roadmap declaration for media freedom in Sri Lanka, the Colombo Declaration of Media Freedom and Social Responsibility of 1998.
This year’s theme revolves around affirming the importance of information enhancing media information and literacy to defend and demand journalism as a vital part of information as a public good. In seeking to advance professionalism in journalism and promote media freedom under the theme; ‘Strengthening Journalism to Advance Democracies; Information as a Public Good’, the SLPI recognises reliable information as key to forge collective aspirations of better democracies.
In echoing this message, the SLPI and the Pathfinder Foundation are jointly hosting a webinar on Right to Information to coincide with the World Press Freedom Day, reiterating the importance of access to information as a public good. The six-member panel will make presentations on the following areas; ‘Gains of the present, priorities for the future’, ‘Implementing RTI: Development priorities and exposing corruption’ and ‘RTI; Privacy and data protection’.