THE UNITED Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) Kingston Cluster Office for the Caribbean will host a public forum tomorrow to celebrate World Press Freedom Day, which is being observed today, May 3. The forum will be in the form of a panel discussion and press conference under the theme, 'Media and Dialogue', at the Terra Nova Hotel, 17 Waterloo Road, Kingston 10, from 9:30 to noon. Media practitioners and members of the public are invited to attend the event.

The panel, which will be chaired by Dr Kwame Boafo, director of UNESCO Cluster Office for the Caribbean, will feature presentations from Byron Buckley, president of the Press Association of Jamaica; Patrick Prendergast, lecturer at the Caribbean Institute of Media and Communication, and Claude Robinson, chairman of the policy and legislative committee of the Broadcasting Commission.

The topics for discussion are: Media Dialogue and Governance; Media Dialogue and Mutual Understanding in Society; Public Service Broadcasting and Social Reporting; as well as Training Standards and Ethics and the Media Professional.

There will be a question-and-answer session where guests will be invited to participate in the discussion.

The United States government will host three press freedom webchats during this week as follows:

May 4: US Support for Independent Media, 12 p.m. EDT (16:00 GMT)

May 5: Is Independent Journalism Possible? 9 a.m. EDT (13:00 GMT)

May 6: Giving Local Media a Voice, 12 p.m. EDT (16:00 GMT)