Press freedom category added to WAN Young Reader Prize

The World Young Reader Prize, an annual award from the World Association of Newspapers (WAN) to recognise newspapers that do the most to develop young readership, has added a press freedom category. This will honour newspapers that teach effectively about the fragility and importance of press freedom in a democratic society.

Entry deadline for the Press Freedom award is 15 April 2009. The award will be announced on 3 May, World Press Freedom Day, and presented at the eighth World Young Reader Conference to be held 27 - 30 September in Prague.

Judges for the special press freedom category will be WAN Golden Pen laureates Doan Viet Hoat (Vietnam) and Pius Njawe (Cameroon) and Nayla Tueni, daughter of assassinated Lebanese publisher Gebran Tueni.

“Making the news”

In addition to the new Press Freedom category, WAN has created a new “Making the News” category that honours innovative projects that allow young people to try their hand as journalists. Other categories are: Editorial, Brand, Public Service and Newspapers in Education. Deadline for all but the Press Freedom category is 5 June.

The World Young Reader Prizes are awarded annually to innovative newspapers that have devised, in the judges' opinion, the best project or activity in the past 24 months in one or more of the main areas of young reader development. "Young readers" are defined as those under the age of 25.

The prize is sponsored by the paper manufacturer Norske Skog as part of its support for WAN's young readership development activities.

For full details about the prize, go to www.wan-press.org/worldyoungreaderprize.

Other initiatives

WAN is also reinforcing other initiatives that engage young people in the defence of press freedom and that encourage teachers to make sure that young people understand the importance of, and threats to, press freedom. These include:

Creation of a Facebook group called “Show Your Face to Free Shi Tao”, where Facebook users are encouraged to download posters of the jailed Chinese journalist and upload photos of themselves posing with it and their local newspaper.
Creating new exercises and materials on press freedom themes for parents and teachers targeting 12- to 16-year-olds, with the help of Newspapers in Education experts from Argentina, Belgium, Palestine and Denmark. The exercises incorporate WAN's 2007 - 2008 press freedom films, available on YouTube.