Liberia: Journalism As a Public Good and the Role of the Media in Liberia

27 May 2021; Monrovia, Liberia:Earlier in May, we celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Windhoek Declaration, a seminal document issued by African journalists meeting in Windhoek, Namibia, in 1991. The Declaration, as relevant today as it was then, outlines principles protecting the press from interference by governmental, political, or economic interests. It brought home to the global community that progress depends on having a free, pluralistic, and independent press. The UN followed their lead and accepted the call to declare 3 May as World Press Freedom Day.

The Declaration emphasised that information is a public good to which everyone is entitled, and this was the theme for this year's celebration of World Press Freedom Day. Information is both a means and an end to the fulfilment of collective human aspirations, including those enshrined in Chapter 3 Article 15A of the Liberian Constitution, in the Pro-Poor Agenda for Prosperity and Development, in the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, and in the African Union's Agenda 2063.

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