The launch happened at the World News Media Congress held in Krakow in May 2025, were the General Assembly of WAN-IFRA unanimously voted to introduce Media Literacy among the “Purpose and Activities” of the association as indicated in the Statutes.
The change testifies to the fact that WAN-IFRA’s commitment to MIL is integral to the association’s broader mission of defending press freedom, promoting ethical journalism, and ensuring a vibrant future for news publishing globally.
Article 2 of the Statutes now reads “WAN-IFRA sets out specifically (…) f) To advance media literacy, particularly news literacy, within both the news publishing industry and among audiences, as a means to foster critical engagement with journalism, build public trust in independent journalism, and strengthen its role as a foundation for a sustainable news market and an informed society”.
The association also adopted a Media Literacy Policy, recognising that the news media industry has a direct responsibility for fostering particularly news literacy and thus contributing to build public trust in independent journalism and audience’s resilience to manipulation.
News literacy is the ability to actively seek out credible news, recognise bias, understand how journalism is produced, and apply critical thinking to use news meaningfully in civic, educational, and professional contexts. It strengthens informed judgement and sustains the motivation to engage with society, it is essential for informed decision-making and active civic participation.
As the world’s largest trade organisation for news publishers, WAN-IFRA is committed in supporting member news organisations to become proactive drivers of MIL initiatives in general and news literacy in particular, in the conviction that strengthening news literacy promotes the long-term viability and market relevance of independent news publishers.
To this end, the project supported by UNESCO will produce a Media Literacy Training for news executives, comprising both in-person and online modules, which will be offered to participants in upcoming WAN-IFRA events.
In addition, a campaign will be put together to celebrate Global Media and Information Literacy Week with materials proposed to members for dissemination.
