HAPPENING NOW: The @Official_UPD Forum on Media Freedom and Responsibility is now underway. Insightful discussions on the importance of free media, media literacy and ethics are in store today.

Watch it live here: http://ow.ly/tirc50xmHSt 

#DefendMediaFreedom

"A free and responsible media is fundamental to an open and democratic society: holding the powerful to account, speaking up for those who have no voice and fighting corruption."

Amb @DanielPruce stresses the importance of a free and responsible media. #DefendMediaFreedom

"No society can ever be free if its media is not. Ang kalayaan ng media ay ang ating kalayaan."

- Amb @DanielPruce

#DefendMediaFreedom

"This campaign is not anti-government, it is not anti-business, it is not anti any single individual or political party. It is pro-media freedom."

- Amb @DanielPruce

#DefendMediaFreedom

"It will strengthen the global consensus that defends, every day and in every country, the right of journalists to do their jobs free from harassment, threats and intimidation."

- Amb @DanielPruce

#DefendMediaFreedom

"It will promote, and celebrate, the highest standards of professional journalism."

- Amb @DanielPruce

#DefendMediaFreedom

"It’s clear that governments cannot do this alone. For this reason we are also forming a broad and inclusive coalition to join us in shining a spotlight on media freedom across the globe."

- Amb @DanielPruce

#DefendMediaFreedom

"Here in the Philippines we are organising a series of activities to raise the profile of media freedom, to highlight issues of responsible journalism and to promote media literacy."

- Amb @DanielPruce

#DefendMediaFreedom

"A responsible media needs to be an ethical media. Journalism helps inform people who they are but in doing so it must meet minimum professional and ethical standards."

- Amb @DanielPruce

#DefendMediaFreedom

"In an era of fake news, where anyone can spread a lie to millions at the click of a mouse or the tap of a touchscreen we need proper, professional, rigorous, courageous journalism more than ever."

- Amb @DanielPruce

#DefendMediaFreedom

"This is not just about the spoken or written word. Photojournalism is at the heart of our work too."

- Amb @DanielPruce

#DefendMediaFreedom

"Photos and videos are no longer immune to the perils of fake news. Deepfakes are becoming more and more convincing and we all need to learn how to question the authenticity of what we see online."

- Amb @DanielPruce

#DefendMediaFreedom

"The methods of those who seek to restrict media freedom are very diverse. Sometimes blatant: arrest, imprisonment, torture, murder."

- Amb @DanielPruce

#DefendMediaFreedom

"Quite often they are more subtle, for example through the creation of a permissive environment for verbal attacks on the media, a context where it is OK to denigrate journalists."

- Amb @DanielPruce

#DefendMediaFreedom

"We all have a responsibility to call out these acts when we see them. We all have a responsibility not to feed a pervasive and corrosive culture by just tolerating it."

- Amb @DanielPruce

#DefendMediaFreedom

"There is nothing wrong with disagreement. You could even argue that such a tension is positive, and is part of the healthy debate that characterises our democracies."

- Amb @DanielPruce

#DefendMediaFreedom

"But where healthy debate gives way to threats and fear we have crossed a very dangerous line."

- Amb @DanielPruce

#DefendMediaFreedom

"People are representing their own points of view. You may not agree with what they say. I may not agree with what they say.

But that’s media freedom in action. And that is what we are here to debate, to defend and to celebrate."

- Amb @DanielPruce

#DefendMediaFreedom