Issue 581 (March 2009) - Office of Marketing and Communications

UQNEWS, MARCH 2009 ➔ 24MEDIA EVENT TO UNITE NATIONSUQ HAS SECURED A FIRST FOR THE PACIFIC REGION TO HOST A GLOBAL MEDIA FREEDOM FORUM IN 2010.In a first for Australia and the Pacific, UQ haswon the right to host UNESCO’s global WorldPress Freedom Day conference and GuillermoCano World Press Freedom Prize-givingceremony in 2010.Announcing UNESCO’s decision to stage theheadline event in Brisbane next year, Director-General Koichiro Matsuura said his organisationwas “proud to hold this ceremony in yourwonderful country, and for the first time in thePacific region”.The UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World PressFreedom Prize honours a person, organisationor institution that have made an outstanding andcourageous contribution to the defence and/orpromotion of press freedom anywhere in theworld.The theme of World Press Freedom Day onMay 3, 2010 is “Freedom of Information: TheRight to Know”, and UQ’s conference will focusparticularly on freedom of expression issues in theAsia-Pacific region.UQ Vice-Chancellor Professor Paul Greenfieldsaid UQ was proud to support UNESCO’s effortsto uphold and engender public accountability andmedia freedom.“UNESCO is the only UN agency with amandate to defend media freedom, and too oftenit has cause to condemn the deliberate killing of ajournalist or journalists,” Professor Greenfield said.“One of this conference’s purposes will beto honour reporters who were assassinated orharmed because they exposed or threatened toexpose the truth.“One of thisconference’s purposeswill be to honourreporters who wereassassinated orharmed because theyexposed or threatenedto expose the truth”“UQ educates journalism students who mayone day work in places where their professionmakes them targets, and we regard thisconference as important for their safety as well asfor the global flow of accurate information.”The University of Queensland celebrates itscentenary in 2010 and its journalism school isAustralia’s oldest.Professor Michael Bromley, Head of theSchool of Journalism and Communication, saidhe hoped the conference would also encourage awider “fringe” program of activities in Brisbane topromote the importance of media freedom to thegeneral public.“Our school has been actively pursuing theWorld Press Freedom Day project for about 18months. This is a high-level, global UN Day, andit will attract large numbers of delegates from allaround the world,” Professor Bromley said.Planning for the event has now started, witha World Press Freedom Day 2010 OrganisingCommittee soon to be appointed.INFO ➔ www.uq.edu.au/sjc– ELIZA PLANTMARTIN HADLOW