The World Press Freedom Day 2026 will hold May 4 and 5 in Lusaka, Zambia. Themed Shaping a Future at Peace, the conference will offer a critical moment to reaffirm freedom of expression both as a normative and empirical lever for shaping the future of information societies.

It will be co-hosted with the Government of Zambia and organised back-to-back with RightsCon 2026.

The conference will bring together press freedom advocates and digital rights communities at a time when the boundaries between journalism, technology, civic space, and human rights are increasingly intertwined.

It will enable cross-fertilisation of ideas, solutions and approaches – including gender-responsive perspectives – between journalists, digital rights advocates, technologists, policy makers, regulators, civil society organisations, academia, researchers, educators, youth leaders and content creators.

This convergence offers a platform to move beyond diagnosis toward coordinated action, aligning journalism, technology (including AI), and human rights actors around practical ways to strengthen information ecosystems for the future.