The Salzburg Academy on Media & Global Change has become part of a multi-partner, global effort to support freedom of expression around the world.

In March 2008, international experts in freedom of expression and freedom of the press (see list below) gathered at UNESCO headquarters in Paris to work on a draft educational Toolkit and curriculum aimed at secondary and undergraduate-level students.

These educational materials are intended to deepen the understanding of freedom of expression and press freedom among young people world-wide

Click on the six topics in the right-hand bar to see the UNESCO Toolkit exercises

Lead editor for the UNESCO effort, Prof. Susan Moeller, director of ICMPA and co-director of the Salzburg Academy, drafted a Freedom of Expression curriculum for the experts to review. During the two-day discussion and debate in Paris, the experts worked through the draft curriculum and added their recommendations for ways for schools to teach freedom of expression--ways drawn from their own experiences and relevant to their respective political and cultural environments.

In July, with the support of the World Association of Newspapers (WAN), a smaller group (see list below) convened in Paris to review a new draft--revised based on the input from the March meeting.

Through Prof. Moeller’s relationship to the Salzburg Academy, the draft produced from the second Paris meeting was put in front of the 2008 Academy students for their contributions. Many of the lesson plans created during the 2008 Salzburg Academy will become part of the UNESCO Freedom of Expression Toolkit, scheduled for publication in 2009.

This UNESCO-Salzburg Academy project is the follow-up curricular project to UNESCO’s Model Curricula for Journalism Education for Developing Countries & Emerging Democracies that was launched in Singapore in June 2007 by UNESCO, AEJMC and AMIC.

The following attended the UNESCO meeting in Paris, March 2008

& helped to create the UNESCO Toolkit materials available on this site:

Meeting hosts
Mogens Schmidt, Deputy Assistant Director-General for Communication and Information and Director of Division for Freedom of Expression, Democracy and Peace. Paris, France.

George Papagiannis, program specialist, UNESCO’s Division of Freedom of Expression, Democracy and Peace. Paris, France.

Project lead editor and author
Susan Moeller, director of the International Center for Media and the Public Agenda (ICMPA) and associate professor of Media and International Affairs at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland. USA.

Participants
Evelyne Bevort, director of Centre de liaison de l'enseignement et des medias d'information (CLEMI). The Clemi (centre for liaison between teaching and information media) is part of the French Ministry of Education. Paris, France.

Kwame Karikari, professor in journalism and mass communication at the School of Communication Studies at the University of Ghana and executive director of the Media Foundation for West Africa. Accra, Ghana.

Hisham Kassem, Chairman of the Egyptian Organization for Human Rights, member of the Egyptian Council for Foreign affairs, columnist for the Aldostour newspaper and holder of Kassem Press Company. From 1996 to 2004 he was the founder and publisher of the Cairo Times. Cairo, Egypt.

Daoud Kuttab, Ferris Professor of Journalism at Princeton University and founder of Arab world's first internet radio station AmmanNet. Recipient of the CPJ Freedom of Expression Award, the IPI World Press Freedom Hero, PEN Club USA Writing Freedom Award and the Leipzeg Courage in Freedom Award. Princeton, USA and Amman, Jordan.

Peter Laufer, journalist, former reporter for NBC News, CBS and ABC radio, and the public radio program Marketplace. USA.

Li Xiguang, director of the Center for International Communication Studies and professor and academic dean of the Department of Communications at Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.

Raymond Louw, Deputy Chairperson, Media Institute of Southern Africa and former editor of the Rand Daily Mail. South Africa.

Aralynn Abare McMane, director of youth readership for the World Association of Newspapers (WAN). Paris, France.

Roxana Morduchowicz, Director of the Media Education Program for the National Ministry of Education in Argentina and Full Professor in the School of Communication at the Buenos Aires National University. Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Martin Phillips, educational consultant working in curriculum design and assessment for English and Media Education in the UK.

Andrei Richter, Director and Founder of the Moscow Media Law and Policy Institute, and Associate Professor at the School of Journalism, Moscow State University. Moscow, Russia.

Björn Richter, board member of the European Youth Press and media-trainer and journalist, Berlin, Germany.

Marguerite Sullivan, senior director of the Center on International Media Assistance at the National Endowment for Democracy and former Executive Director of the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO at the U.S. Department of State. Washington, DC. USA.

Gabriela Warkentin de la Mora, UNESCO Chair in Communication and Head of the Communication Department at Universidad Iberoamericana and Director of the university's Radio Station, ibero90.9radio. Mexico City, Mexico

The following attended the UNESCO-WAN meeting in Paris, July 2008

& helped to edit the UNESCO Toolkit materials available on this site:

Meeting hosts
George Papagiannis, program specialist, UNESCO’s Division of Freedom of Expression, Democracy and Peace. Paris, France.

Aralynn Abare McMane, director of youth readership for the World Association of Newspapers (WAN). Paris, France.

Project lead editor and author
Susan Moeller, director of the International Center for Media and the Public Agenda (ICMPA) and associate professor of Media and International Affairs at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland. USA.

Participants
Evelyne Bevort, director of Centre de liaison de l'enseignement et des medias d'information (CLEMI). The Clemi (centre for liaison between teaching and information media) is part of the French Ministry of Education. Paris, France.

Roxana Morduchowicz, Director of the Media Education Program for the National Ministry of Education in Argentina and Full Professor in the School of Communication at the Buenos Aires National University. Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Protima Naidu, Newspapers in Education (NIE) Manager, Hindustan Times, India.

Gerard van der Weijden, educational consultant and Director, STEPP, The Netherlands.

More links between the Salzburg Academy & UNESCO

Read the article "Freedom of Expression: A Right to be Taught" in the UNESCO Courier written by Susan Moeller, the lead editor for the UNESCO Freedom of Expression Curriculum and Toolkit and the Salzburg Academy lead professor. Moeller writes:

Media have never been more vital for the nurturing of civil society but freedom of expression is now in retreat. No society can be free, open and fair without a diversity of voices. To remedy this situation, students of journalism must first be taught to develop a critical mind.

The UNESCO Courier is the flagship publication of UNESCO, reflecting its concerns and thoughts in articles from around the world. Created in August 1947, only two years after UNESCO's creation, the Courier is a monthly on-line magazine that may be read in the six official languages of the UN (English, French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian and Chinese). Each issue consists of a thematic dossier that treats one of UNESCO's concerns.

UNESCO Freedom of Expression and Press, Democracy logo: http://www.helmut-langer.eu/