World News Day to be marked on September 28

More than 500 newsrooms and media support organisations around the world will unite in a global campaign on September 28 to showcase the value of fact-based journalism.

The day will be commemorated across six continents, among newsrooms of all sizes – from the Financial Times (worldwide), The Globe and Mail (Canada), and The Straits Times (Singapore) in the northern hemisphere, to LA NACION (Argentina), News24 (South Africa), and Stuff (New Zealand) in the south.

The campaign will see global newsrooms carry print and digital adverts and use their social media channels, newsletters and other platforms to highlight the critical message that journalism matters and is worth supporting, promoting and defending.

World News Day is the focus of a 90-minute live-streamed in-person event from The World News Media Congress in Zaragoza, Spain, at 15:00 CET on September 28. Vivian Schiller, Executive Director of Aspen Digital, The Aspen Institute, will chair proceedings which will feature David Walmsley, Editor-in-Chief The Globe and Mail;  Warren Fernandez, Editor-in-Chief, The Straits Times; Alessandra Galloni, Editor-in-Chief, Reuters;  Kathy English, Chair, The Canadian Journalism Foundation; Shirish Kulkarni, Journalist, Community Organiser, The Bureau of Investigative Journalism and Phoebe Connelly, Director of Next Generation Audiences, The Washington Post. 

People can view the session on the verified World News Day YouTube channel. 

The World News Day campaign is organised by The Canadian Journalism Foundation (CJF) and WAN-IFRA's World Editors Forum. It is sponsored by Google News Initiative.

"On World News Day we will showcase some of the best journalism that our industry has to offer – it is not just about one day – it's about the work that professional newsrooms do all year round. World News Day is about drawing inspiration and renewing our commitment to purposeful journalism," said Warren Fernandez, Editor-in-Chief of the Straits Times, Singapore, and President of the World Editors Forum.

"As we mark World News Day, the challenge to all newsrooms going forward is to do more to show journalism's value to young and underserved audiences. To build and gain trust with the public, we must first reach them by representing their voices and experiences," said Kathy English, Chair of The Canadian Journalism Foundation.