World Press Freedom Day To Be Hosted By Indonesia in 2017

Indonesia was chosen to host the next World Press Freedom Day (WPFD) in 2017.

According to Tempo, Indonesian Ambassador to UNESCO Hotmangaradja Pandjaitan confirmed the news on a statement received by Antara news agency from Vicka A. Rompis from the Indonesia representative office at UNESCO in Paris.

Andy Smith, a member of the Executive Committee of the National Union of Journalists in UK and Ireland, explained the significance of WPFD when he spoke to Georgia Gogarty

According to Smith, WPFD is an "opportunity to mark the importance of the freedom of the press" once a year, 25 years after the Windhoek Declaration in Africa. However, the situation for free media is worsening.

Every year, there are journalists and staff dying on duty. According to Vatican Radio, in this year, 26 journalists and media staff have been killed. Some people in media received threats.

One of the people who works in media, and has received threats, is the 40-year-old director of the Somali TV station Horn Cable, Abdiqadir Dulyar. Chicago Tribune reports that every time Dulyar received threats, he avoided going home and would instead stay at his office for weeks at a time. One of the threats that he received via phone reads, "Keep doing what you do, and we shall come to give your well-deserved reward: death."

May 3 was marked as World Press Freedom Day (WPFD). This special day was proclaimed by the United Nation General Assembly in December 1993, and it is the celebration of the anniversary of the Declaration of Windhoek, celebrated worldwide.

In this day, there is an opportunity to "celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom" that includes assessing the state of press freedom throughout the world, defending the media from attacks on their independence, and to pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the line of duty, according to the official website of U.N.