UNESCO: #QuestionsThatMatter | World Press Freedom Day

“The sovereignty of the people and the freedom of the press are two entirely correlative things,” Alexis de Tocqueville. Some crises can act as revelators. What was striking during the Covid-19 crisis was this deep dependence on public goods such as water, transit, health infrastructure, and equipment… Goods are so common that we forget how vital they are. Information is one of those fundamental assets. The role of journalists in a society is to inform, investigate and denounce. More than just a right, press freedom is the sine qua non-condition for any democracy.

If people do not know what is happening in their society, if their leaders if economic, moral, or religious powers act under the veil of secrecy, no one can act. Through 5 symptomatic questions of today’s world and by confronting readers directly with the effects of censorship, UNESCO asks us about the individual and collective consequences of a lack of press freedom. Without this possibility to ask questions: those that annoy, those that disturb, we are all deprived of information, and by the same action.

To silence a journalist is to silence all of us.

Credits
Client: UNESCO
Campaign: #QuestionsThatMatter
Advertising Agency: DDB Paris, France
Agency Supervisor: Vincent Leorat, Mathieu Bliguet, Justine Roux
Executive Creative Director: Alexander Kalchev
Copywriter: Léa Laurenza
Art Director: Idriss Dabre
Press Relations Director: Anne-Marie Gibert
Planner: Cédric Ledoux
Social Media: Sébastien Balondrade
Print Producer: Jocya Mallet
Art buyer: Corinne Persch, Gaëlle De-Pompignan