Today is World Press Freedom Day. In 1993, the UN General Assembly passed a resolution declaring May 3rd as World Press Freedom Day (WPFD). The day “celebrates the fundamental principles of press freedom; to evaluate press freedom around the world, to defend the media from attacks on their independence and to pay tribute to journalists who have lost their lives in the exercise of their profession.”

The theme for 2012 is “New Voices: Media Freedom Helping to Transform Societies.” In today’s world, the power of the press goes beyond traditional journalism to encompass the social impact of the Internet. The Internet opened a new door to freedom of expression, to those who use Twitter, Facebook, blogs, and other Internet media to inform the world about important events. Individuals risk their lives to report developing events in civil disturbances. According to the UNESCO statement about Information Communications Technology (ICT), “Media freedom entails the right of any person to freedom of opinion and expression on a public basis, which includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and ideas through any media and regardless of frontiers, as stated in Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The recent uprisings in some Arab states have highlighted the power of media and the human quest for media freedom, as well as underlining the fact that social inequalities will indefinitely search for equilibrium, in order to address those inequalities. Could the Arab Spring have taken place without the proliferation of social media or satellite TV? ICT (like text messaging) and social media have enabled the diffusion of vital information to reach the widest number of people in a very short span of time. Social media have enabled protesters to self-organize, and have engaged the global youth in the fight to be able to freely express themselves and the aspirations of their wider communities.

“This new found media freedom is promising to transform societies in ways perhaps unimaginable only a year ago. It has enabled the emergence of new ways to communicate, to share information and knowledge, and for people to widen their sense of participation, identity and belonging. Media freedom, including online freedom, also plays a dynamic role in the economic transformation of society.”

The WPFD theme for 2012 expresses the goal of press freedom, but it is still far from reality. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) released their annual report on press freedom on April 26. As reported in “Freedom of the Press is Alive and Well in Costa Rica and Uruguay,” we live in one of the few Latin American countries that has freedom of the press. Freedom or the press goes beyond journalists who were murdered for the journalist activities, but to those who were murdered with impunity, and imprisoned for reporting the news. Costa Rica still stands out as one of the few countries in Latin American, where there are no reported attempts to suppress journalism. The most dangerous countries in Latin America are Mexico (#8), Columbia (#5), and Brazil (#11), which all rank in the top twelve countries for the highest impunity index. The impunity index is a measure of the attempts of a country to identify and prosecute attacks on journalists.

When looking at the direct Internet censorship, only Cuba (#9) ranked in the top 10 countries in CPJ’s “10 Most Censored Countries” report. The report only included countries whose government imposed censorship, which excluded Mexico, as it journalists practice “self-censorship” to protect themselves. Guatemala is also seeing a rise in self-censorship.

Countries such as Ecuador, Peru, and Venezuela use restrictive laws to limit criticism of the government by journalists. In spit of the Truth and Reconciliation Commissions, Honduras continues to see attacks on journalists by the police.

On World Press Freedom Day, we should recognize the value of the freedom of press that we enjoy in Costa Rica.