The image of the campaign

3 May will be the day to celebrate freedom of the press where it has been conquered, but also to acknowledge the fragility of this achievement. 


So starts the press release by WAN-IFRA (World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers), the association that gathers the newspapers and world publications - almost 15,000 Websites and over 3,000 companies in 120 countries -, which has launched the campaign “30 Days for Freedom”. 

Everyday, from 4 April to 3 May, the association brings about the figure of a reporter, journalist, blogger, photographer or other press media worker who is jailed or persecuted for his work and his struggle for freedom of the press.


“When power tells lies - they write at WAN-IFRA - there are people that try to control or influence the press. By its nature, free information is uncontrollable, and able to talk to the public opinion without filters. This is why it is steadily under attack”.

WAN-IFRA also focuses on the world of blogs and social networks, tools that enable the circulation of information and the spreading of dissent in authoritarian regimes.  Censorship therefore does not distinguish between different platforms. Prisons "host" anybody who takes a stance against the power, regardless of the media they use.

However intimidation and arrest are not the only instruments used by the regimes to censor free press and prevent journalists from doing their duty. Cases like those of  Anna Politkovskaja and Hrant Dink, both Righteous at the Milan Garden, remind us that reporters often pay with their lives the attempt to defend memory and truth.

Gariwo therefore joined the campaign WAN-IFRA - which is there also on Twitter with hashtag #FreethePress - by reporting the stories of the journalists who have been arrested, tortured or killed because of their struggle for the freedom of the press.