A leading Australian journalism law professor and freedom of the press advocate will give New Zealands inaugural UNESCO World Press Freedom Day lecture at AUT University on Friday.

Professor Mark Pearson, professor of journalism and social media at Griffith University near Brisbane, will be speaking on the theme "Press freedom, social media and the citizen", at the university on May 3, observed globally as media freedom day.

The public address is being hosted by AUTs Pacific Media Centre and supported by the New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO and the School of Communication Studies.

The international theme for the UNESCO World Press Freedom Day is "Safe to speak: Securing freedom of expression in all media".

"This broadens the debate," says Professor Pearson, who publishes a high profile blog on media law and free media issues, Journlaw.com.

"It opens the way for an exploration of the libertarian origins of press freedom and the advent of social media and citizen journalism at a time when we are looking for new models of media responsibility and ethics - beyond a social responsibility model - some of which embrace cultural and religious notions of truth and story-telling."

Professor Pearson is the author of the popular textbook The Journalists Guide To Media Law, which has run to four editions, and Blogging and Tweeting Without Getting Sued. He is also the Australian correspondent of the Paris-based media freedom advocacy group

Reporters Sans Frontieres (Reporters Without Borders) and is on the editorial board of the New Zealand-based Pacific Journalism Review.

The public address is being hosted by AUTs Pacific Media Centre and supported by the New Zealand National Commission for UNESCO and the School of Communication Studies.

A half-hour documentary, Media Freedom in the Pacific, commissioned by the International Federation of Journalists will also be screened and speakers include Professor Judy McGregor, head of AUTs School of Social Sciences, and Tim McBride for UNESCO New Zealands communications committee.

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Journalism law professor to give World Press Freedom Day lecture