Registration Open For World News Media Congress

Registration is open for the World News Media Congress in Glasgow in June which will look at the hostile climate facing media across the globe, with journalists in different countries facing a range of threats.

“The safety of journalists is of paramount importance,” says WAN-IFRA President Michael Golden. “All of the press must report on countries where journalist safety is most threatened. The press’s role in holding politicians, the courts, the police forces to account is more important than ever.”

Figures from Reporters Without Borders show that 80 journalists were killed last year, up by eight per cent on last year, 348 are currently in prison, and 60 are being held hostage with murders, imprisonment, hostage-taking and enforced disappearances all increasing on the previous year.

The widely reported murders of Saudi columnist Jamal Khashoggi and the young Slovak data journalist Ján Kuciak highlighted the lengths to which press freedom’s enemies are prepared to go. More than half of the journalists killed in 2018 were deliberately targeted, RSF said.

These trends will be addressed at the World News Media Congress in Glasgow in June, a gathering of hundreds of media executives from across the globe. Registration to attend can be done here.

“These issues are of great importance and are equally complex. Honest and thoughtful discussion of these questions is what the conference promises,” Golden said.