World Press Freedom Day

The United Nations has declared that May 3 be celebrated as World Press Freedom Day.  The theme for 2014 is "Media Freedom for a Better Future: Shaping the Post-2015 Development Agenda."  But how free is the press really?  Yes, we're free here in NZ but in other parts of the world, specially in the developing countries, journalists are killed, tortured, imprisoned, harassed, intimidated and silenced.  A case in point are the three journalists of the Al-Jazeera Network kept in prison in an Egyptian jail for more than 100 days now.  No amount of pressure from anyone could budge the Egyptian authorities to free these journalists.  And if it can be done to those working for a reputable media organisation like Al-Jazeera, what more to the lesser known journalists and media companies.

Yes, we're free here in NZ.  In the 2014 World Press Freedom Index, we're at #9 out of 180 countries.  The top 10 are: Finland, Netherlands, Norway, Luxembourg, Andorra, Liechtenstein, Denmark, Iceland, New Zealand, and Sweden.  This is a good indicator of New Zealand's media outfits enjoying their press freedom.  It was Spiderman who said that "with great power, comes great responsibilities."  The recent exposes from high government officials is just one more indicator that in NZ, journalists are not afraid to follow thru with their investigations and reports even if it involves these types of officials.


For an ordinary citizen like me, this is of great comfort for us, knowing that the truth will always set us free."