INFEMNITY Productions at World Press Freedom Day

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Several venues in New York hosted events in celebration of World Press Freedom Day during the week of May 1st through 5th, the most notable being the United Nations. The result of the Windhoek Declaration, which was produced at a UNESCO seminar "Promoting an Independent and Pluralistic African Press" - held in Windhoek, the capital of Namibia, from April 29th to May 3rd 1991 - the date of the Declaration's adoption, May 3rd, has subsequently been declared as World Press Freedom Day. This year marked the 30th anniversary of the global conference.

This year, the primary focus of the conference was the war in Ukraine. Several journalists have lost their lives there. The documentary 20 Days in Mariupol was screened at the Roosevelt House at Hunter College the evening of May 1st, which emphasized the importance of getting video footage out of a war zone when Internet access has been destroyed. The producers of the film came very close to losing their lives, as well as their footage.

The panel titled Freedom of Expression and Gender Justice explored the lack of basic access to the Internet as experienced by the majority of women in the world.

Freedom of Expression and Gender Justice panel

The safety of female journalists in the Internet Age was another primary theme of the conference. Ironic that the panel moderator for Data Collection and Distribution Processes as Enablers of the Exercise of Human Rights, Ramu Damodaran, Deputy Permanent Observer for the University for Peace, neglected to notice that, in a room that was 90% full of women, that women should be called upon to ask questions or make statements. He invited a male colleague to ask a question, ignoring all of the women in the room.

Sexism runs rampant at the United Nations. INFEMNITY Productions was the only black women-owned production company present for the events, and it is obvious that black women's voices are heard the least of all U.N. participants. We continue to fight to make sure that black women are seen, heard, and acknowledged.

INFEMNITY representing at the United Nations


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