World Press Freedom Day will be celebrated on Saturday 3^rd May this year. The international day, which is backed by the UN's cultural arm UNESCO, aims to:

• celebrate the fundamental principles of press freedom;
• assess the state of press freedom throughout the world;
• defend the media from attacks on their independence;
• pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the line of duty.

The day has been celebrated since 1993, and its organisers maintain that a critical press, and a plurality of media sources, are essential organs in any well functioning society. Although Press Freedom Day was born out of the repression of journalists in countries where governments sought to silence critical members of the media (often brutally), the day should also be celebrated in terms of freedom from corporate actors – who in neoliberal countries such as the UK play a role in governance over a whole range of issues – as much as from governments who would seek to restrict the output of critical voices.

Ahead of World Press Freedom Day this year, UNESCO called for greater transparency from those in power around the world, claiming "A society that is guaranteed access to public documents and public decision-making processes is able to bring conflicts of interest to light and empower citizens with information."

The UN body also believes action in this area would facilitate work towards realising the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by reducing poverty – pointing out that "Poverty is more than just a lack of resources; it is a lack of empowerment" and adding that a key step in tackling the full scope of poverty is providing the poor and underrepresented with reliable information, serving the public interest. The UN notes that this applies especially to two groups that are generally disproportionately impacted on: women and youth.

The focus of World Press Freedom Day this year centres on three inter-linked themes, the last of which - the sustainability and integrity of journalism - dictates that, whilst certain standards are expected of the press (including reliability, fairness, and public interest), recent technological and societal developments mean press integrity has come under pressure in a variety of ways. One such way, UNESCO points out, is that "In many cases, the boundaries between editorial content and advertising are blurring" which in turn means that a widening variety of contributors to news content "includes some who do not understand or adhere to journalistic professionalism."

Whilst these new avenues and content remain relatively novel, it is more important than ever to question and discuss the motivations, values and frameworks behind news media and material presented as such, in order for the press to have the effect of informing our collective development, and to challenge those who would seek to derail this process. 

In a statement made ahead of the International Day, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and UNESCO Director-General Irina Bokova said, "Journalism provides a platform for informed discussion across a wide range of development issues – from environmental challenges and scientific progress to gender equality [and] youth engagement... Only when journalists are at liberty to monitor, investigate and criticize policies and actions can good governance exist."