On the occasion of
World Press Freedom Day
3 May 2005
Speech by Ms. Mona K. Hider
UNDP Resident Representative, a.i.
Your Excellency Dr. Ibrahim Izzedine, President of Higher Council of Media
Your Excellency Mr. Jean-Michel Casa, Ambassador of the Republic of France
Excellencies,
UNESCO & Media colleagues,
Ladies & Gentlemen,
It is a great pleasure to be present today on the occasion of the World Press Freedom Day and the opening of the media workshop with a special focus on good governance.
It is now recognized and appreciated that, to a greater degree than ever, open media provide a critical measure of progress toward democracy. Access to information and the right of freedom of expression are central elements in ensuring the voice and participation necessary to the development of a democratic, civil society.
Indeed, UNDP Arab Human Development Report 2004 that was released last month highlighted and described the role of the media as an important and complementary tool in the promotion and support of good governance and democratic reform.
Democratic governance is a central plank in achieving human development, when committed to transparency, active participation, responsiveness and accountable.
Human development can be achieved by addressing the information and communication needs of the poor. They often lack information that is vital to their lives – information on basic rights and entitlements, information on public services, health, education, employment etc. They also lack visibility and voice to enable them to define and influence policy priorities.
In Jordan, H.M. King Abdullah II, has underlined the need for government institutions to open up to the media, through enhancing communication with the journalists and granting them access to information.
The Jordan Millennium Development Goals Report that was released in October of last year, has clearly recognized that most, if not all, of its challenges cannot be achieved without the support of the media.
I also wish to reiterate that UNDP positions Media as a key instrument for advocating Good Governance. In partnership with the Government of Jordan and under its good governance portfolio and Social portfolio, UNDP supports several access to information programmes, such as creating community knowledge stations, strengthening social & poverty statistics and monitoring the Millennium Development Goals through a specialized database that can be accessed by public. The same applies to our E-governance support projects with the aim to improve effectiveness, efficiency and transparency and accountability in the national good governance practices.
UNDP through the UN Volunteer programme in Jordan is preparing a project that promotes good governance practices by empowering it with the voice of the people. The project will be a collaborative effort between UNV/UNDP, UNIFEM, UNESCO, the French Government, the Japanese Government and several local partners.
Through the volunteers, this initiative aims to promote the mechanisms that are relevant and accessible to the poor in order to allow them to develop a voice and make demands for information that is relevant to them and to help national decision-makers in taking more informed decisions with regard to addressing national priorities.
Finally, allow me to conclude that a responsible Media has a complementary role to play in the promotion and protection of both access to information itself and flows of information that exist between government, parliament, community groups as well as civil society organizations and the private sector. Therefore, an independent, pluralist and responsible media is a crucial “institution” towards good governance.
I wish you a successful workshop, and thank you,