Plans are moving ahead for World News Day, which this year will focus on climate change, “the most defining story of our time”.

The event is planned for September 28, with newsmedia companies urged to join the global campaign to show why journalism matters.

Last year, 150 newsrooms took part in the World News Day initiative, presented by the World Editors Forum and Canadian Journalism Foundation. It is part of a drive to build public understanding of the importance of journalism.

For 2021, the event will showcase some of the best journalism in reporting on the climate emergency, showing how journalism impacts all of society.

Publishers are invited to visit WorldNewsDay.org for information about how they can participate in World News Day.

World Editors Forum president and editor-in-chief of Singapore’s Straits Times Warren Fernandez says this year’s event will also be an occasion to tell how 100 newsrooms responded to the global crisis of COVID-19, and played a role in keeping societies well informed, “as well as bringing our communities together, so critical in these testing times”.

Immediate past chair of the Canadian Journalism Foundation and editor-in-chief of the Globe and Mail David Walmsley says World News Day is also about recognising the people in the news and listening to how journalism has made a difference in their lives.

“It is about coming together across the continents and displaying support for journalists and their audiences who together, using facts and understanding, make the world a better place.”