Amanpour, Cadwalladr, O’Brien and Maalouf are participating at World Press Freedom Conference

Renowned journalist Christiane Amanpour is one of the prominent figures who will be speaking in the digital World Press Freedom Conference which will be transmitted from The Hague on 9 and 10 December.

Collage Amanpour, O'Brien, Maalouf and Cadwalladr
Amanpour, O'Brien, Maalouf, Cadwalladr

Ms Amanpour, a British-Iranian correspondent, has been an established name in international journalism for decades. As a CNN host and news anchor, she has reached audiences of tens of millions with her reporting from crisis and war zones and interviews with world leaders. She has been awarded multiple prizes and distinctions for her work. At World Press Freedom Conference (WPFC) 2020 Ms Amanpour will be speaking about the importance of press freedom, and answer prior questions from participants in the conference, hosted by UNESCO and the Kingdom of the Netherlands.

Investigating corruption, electoral manipulation and other abuses

WPFC 2020 will also feature contributions by other well-known journalists, including Carole Cadwalladr, Soledad O’Brien and Joe Maalouf. Carole Cadwalladr emerged on the world stage in 2018 as one of the journalists who broke the story of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, involving the large-scale illegal manipulation of online data to influence election campaigns. Ms Cadwalladr is affiliated with the British newspaper The Observer. Soledad O’Brien is a broadcast journalist known for her work at CNN, Al Jazeera America and HBO. She also has her own production company. Born in the United States to immigrant parents from Cuba and Australia, Ms O’Brien often focuses her reporting on diversity and discrimination. Mr Maalouf is a Lebanese television presenter who has made a name for himself with broadcasts on abuses stemming from corruption and tackling social and religious issues. He has received multiple threats in response to his work.

Unique digital platform, no participation fee

WPFC will feature leading journalists and media figures from around the world. There is a list of speakers below; short bios can be found here. The organisers have worked hard to put together the programme for this free digital conference. A special digital platform has been set up to make the WPFC accessible around the world despite the current international travel restrictions.

Meeting place for thousands of journalists

WPFC is a digital meeting place for thousands of journalists, researchers, policymakers, NGO staff, students and young people, jurists and others who value freedom of the press. Today more than ever, as we face the uncertainties of the COVID-19 pandemic, a free press is essential to our efforts to understand, tackle and overcome the crisis. This is why it is important to stand together for a free, independent press and for the safety of journalists. Registration for the conference is open to all and free of charge. Places are limited so we recommend that you register as soon as possible. A new update about interesting speakers and the latest information about the programme will be published soon.

List of confirmed speakers at WPFC 2020:

Christiane Amanpour (UK)
Carmen Aristegui (Mexico)
Lina Attalah (Egypt)
Jineth Bedoya (Colombia)
Agnes Binagwaho (Rwanda)
Asli Erdogan (Turkey)
Carole Cadwalladr (UK)
Matthew Caruana Galizia (Malta)
Deeyah Khan (Norway)
Joe Maalouf (Lebanon)
Maria Ressa (Philippines)
Soledad O’Brien (USA)