Paris, 10 December 2003

For immediate release

³Knowledge Societies² Impossible Without Press Freedom

Efforts to close the ³digital divide² between rich and poor societies and create ³knowledge societies² will fail unless developing nations embrace freedom of expression, the Director General of the World Association of Newspapers said Wednesday.

³In more and more countries, the struggle for freedom of information, freedom of expression, freedom of the media, is today being fought out on the internet rather than in print, where it has traditionally taken place,² saidthe WAN Director General, Timothy Balding, in a speech to the World Electronic Media Forum in Geneva, Switzerland.

The meeting of more than 300 broadcasting organisations from more than 100 countries is taking place in conjunction with the World Summit on the Information Society, where scores of governments are gathering to discuss how the internet and other electronic distribution technologies can empower the voiceless and contribute to building ³knowledge societies².

³The stark truth, however, is that many of the principal barriers and obstacles to the free flow of information through these new channels have been erected and are being maintained by dozens of those very governments,² Mr Balding said.

³The World Summit on the Information Society will be declaring its faith and conviction in the power of information and knowledge to radically change societies, at a time when governments all over the world, their pens poised to sign this declaration at the end of the week, are dreaming of new ways to gag and break the spirit of those men and women who are actually endevouring to put into practice these ideas and principles.²

Mr Balding said it was necessary to close the ³moral and human rights divide² as well as closing the digital divide.

³The unhappy fact is that it is largely in the poorest, least developed nations where this repression of information and opinion is at its most severe and where thousands of journalists, more and more of them Œcyber-reporters,¹ are each year persecuted, murdered, beaten, arrested and imprisoned, often for doing no more than questioning the right of their governments to take information hostage and to deprive their fellow citizens of the right to open debate and the plurality of opinion,² he said.

Read the full speech at: http://www.wan-press.org/article3290.html

The Paris-based WAN, the global organisation for the newspaper industry, defends and promotes press freedom world-wide. It represents 18,000 newspapers; its membership includes 72 national newspaper associations, individual newspaper executives in 100 countries, 13 news agencies and nine regional and world-wide press groups.

Inquiries to: Larry Kilman, Director of Communications, WAN, 25 rue d'Astorg, 75008 Paris France. Tel: +33 1 47 42 85 00. Fax: +33 1 47 42 49 48. Mobile: +33 6 10 28 97 36. E-mail: lkilman@wan.asso.fr.

Larry Kilman

Director of Communications

World Association of Newspapers

25, rue d'Astorg

75008 Paris France

Tel: +33 1 47 42 85 00

Fax: +33 1 47 42 49 48

E-mail: lkilman@wan.asso.fr

Visit our web site at http://www.wan-press.org/

The World Association of Newspapers is moving!

From 1 January 2004, the Secretariat of WAN, and the World Editors Forum, will move to 7 Rue Geoffroy St. Hilaire, 75005 Paris, France. Our contact numbers will not change