Its aim is to inform citizens around the world about violations of freedom of expression occurring in dozens of countries. A freedom enshrined in Article
19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and in Article
21 of the Constitution:

"Everyone has the right to freely express their own thoughts through speech, writing and any other means of dissemination. The press may not be subjected to authorisations or censorship"

Violations occur every day through acts of censorship,
sanctions and suspensions suffered by news outlets;
journalists and publishers are still attacked, arrested and
even killed while carrying out their work. There are signs for
optimism, such as the return, after 50 years, of

independent newspapers to the newsstands of Burma, but there are still many difficult situations.

Reporters Without Borders
According to data from
Reporters Without Borders, 88 journalists were killed in 2012 (already 19 in 2013), and 38 were kidnapped. The
bloggers and activists arrested for having used the internet to report violence and abuses numbered 144.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and Unesco Director-General Irina Bokova released a joint statement in which they affirm that "freedom of expression also creates the right conditions for the protection and promotion of all other human rights".

Who is Domenico Quirico
This year the Day is felt particularly keenly in Italy as well. Since 8 April, in fact, there has been no news of La Stampa correspondent Domenico Quirico (pictured), who entered Syria to document and report first-hand on the civil war that has been under way for more than two years. The editor of the Turin daily, Mario Calabresi, wrote a lengthy editorial recounting Quirico's story and taking stock of the situation facing on-the-ground, frontline journalism.

As a show of solidarity, those working in La Stampa's newsroom pinned a yellow ribbon to the print edition, the website and their official and personal Twitter profiles. The yellow ribbon has now become an international symbol of goodwill and closeness towards reporters in danger and their families.