[2] At the tenth anniversary of the Windhoek Declaration, however, the United Nations jubilee statement noted the fragility of press freedom in the face of political violence or authoritarianism.
Since it was formally approved by the UNESCO Member States during the 28th Session of the General Conference (November 1995),[3] the Windhoek Declaration has become a major reference in the United Nations system.
[5] The 1989 New Communication Strategy stresses that this can only be reached “without any obstacle to freedom of expression” in accordance with the fundamental purpose of UNESCO to promote the “free flow of ideas by word and image”.
[6][7][8] The Windhoek seminar was a direct follow-up to the East-West Roundtable that the Director General, Federico Mayor had rapidly set up in February 1990, a few weeks after the fall of the Berlin Wall, in order to address one of the numerous challenges generated by the end of the Cold War,[1] that is the democratization of the media landscape in Central and Oriental European countries.
[5] At the 26th session of the General Conference (November 1991), the Member States of UNESCO expressed their deep satisfaction with the outcome of the Windhoek seminar and invited the Director-General “to extend to other regions of the world the action taken so far in Africa and Europe to encourage press freedom and to promote the independence and pluralism of the media; (b) to celebrate the anniversary of the Windhoek Declaration adopted on 3 May 1991; (c) to transmit to the United Nations General Assembly the wish expressed by the Member States of UNESCO to have 3 May declared ‘International Press Freedom Day”.
They were those who put forward and defended in these intergovernmental fora the suggestion made at Windhoek by journalists to establish World Press Freedom Day annually celebrated on May 3.