New Frontiers, New Barriers - World Press Freedom Day 2011

 
By Lisa Bogler

As the digital world is growing, managers of the various media houses have been urged to provide equipment to enhance the productivity of their human resource base.

As the Chairman of the World Press Freedom Day that was observed in Cape Coast, Kobina Antwi Konadu disclosed this to members of Central Regional branch of Ghana Journalists’ Association as the traditional form of media and way of news gathering is questioned.

This year’s theme of World Press Freedom Day celebration, held in Washington D.C., USA on 1-3 May is 21st Century Media: New Frontiers, New Barriers. All over the world, events are organized and journalists gather to commemorate the declaration of World Press Freedom Day by the United Nations General Assembly. This day has been declared in 1993 to raise the awareness of the importance of the freedom of the press and as an extension of the Declaration of Windhoek in 1991, where African newspaper journalists put together a statement of free press principles in Nairobi.

Each year since 1997 UNESCO presents the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize to an individual, organization or institution that has fought for press freedom in an outstanding manner. The laureate of 2011 is Ahmad Zeidabadi, an Iranian journalist who was imprisoned after Iran’s highly disputed presidential elections in 2009. In the Press Freedom Index, an annual ranking of countries collated by Reporters Without Borders, Iran currently ranks fourth lowest, on position 175. Ghana has been located the 26th position and is improving.

The events in Iran during the presidential election 2009 would have been far less discussed and less known of, if not for the new digital technologies. Facebook, Twitter and other social networks enabled news to spread as quickly as never before and through barriers no journalist could cross. It is therefore the principles of media freedom in the digital age that gives the topic for World Press Freedom Day 2011. The ability of citizens to voice their opinions and access diverse and independent information sources has rapidly improved over the last few years.

As some journalists point out, this benefit can pose a risk to their jobs. Anyone can send his or her story to a media house and have it published while the professional journalist takes more time verifying information and finding various sources. Moreover, anyone can gather news very easily on the internet now. Printed newspaper and radio are not needed as they were before as it is cheaper to inform oneself on the net than buying a newspaper every day.

However, the digital age brings many benefits to the journalists as well. Through the new technologies, they are able to stay connected with colleagues and their editors at all times, to mention one. News can be exchanged much faster than formerly. If one means of communication fails, there is always another way to send information.

On a radio program on YES FM, the Regional Chairman of the Ghana Journalists Association (GJA) Ebo Sackey praises these new means. He points out, that this is something where the older journalists can learn from their young colleagues who grew up with the internet. He asks the media to embrace this opportunity while also facing its challenges. Frances Black from the UK, a guest of the special radio program and volunteer at Central Press, agrees that the new technologies are the way forward for many newspapers today. In the UK, most newspapers publish their articles on websites and have them printed. They can reach more people in doing so and their printed editions seem to be sold nonetheless.

The digital age is changing the media and will continue to do so as society gradually adapts to the rapid developments. Journalists face new challenges but will benefit from this technology by exploring the latest ways and taking advantage of new opportunities, using them for their own good. It is easier now to express one’s opinion and channel them to the word than it was ever before. The freedom of expression is strengthened, one of the important basic human rights.