World News Day is here, and there’s still time to add your voice
World News Day 2026 is here. From today, 25 September, until 1 October, more than 1,000 news organisations and support agencies in over 100 countries will run a joint campaign for fact-based journalism. The main day is Monday 28 September, which is also the United Nations’ International Day for Universal Access to Information.
What it’s about
World News Day asks the public to do three things: know the facts, understand what matters, and choose trusted journalism.
This year, the focus is on explaining the work of journalists. For one week, participating newsrooms are asked to highlight how their journalism is made: the verification, the sourcing, the reporting that happens before anything is published.
“News organisations are very good at telling other people’s stories. We have not always been equally good at telling our own,” said Stig Ørskov, CEO of WAN-IFRA.
Why it matters that you take part
Newsrooms are closing and budgets are shrinking. AI-generated content and disinformation now compete with real reporting for the public’s attention. No single newsroom can push back against that alone, but more than 1,000 of them, on the same day, in dozens of languages, can.
That is the point of World News Day. Each newsroom that joins makes the collective case stronger, and makes it heard in another community, another country, another language.
“Alone, any one of us can be dismissed. Together, in dozens of languages and more than a hundred countries, we’re harder to ignore,” said Branko Brkic, founder of Project Kontinuum and co-organiser of World News Day. “That’s the whole point of doing this on the same day. Not a fundraiser. A rallying point.”
The campaign has grown quickly. It began in 2018 with 17 organisations. Last year it reached more than 1,000 publishers in 108 countries and 17 languages. In 2026, newsrooms will argue together that trusted news is a public right, not a favour granted by those in power.
How to take part, even now
There’s still time. Register here and you’ll get the full campaign toolkit straight away:
- A collection of 20 op-eds from leading journalists
- Campaign assets translated into more than 20 languages
- Social media graphics and copy for the campaign week
- Print and digital ads
- 3 Cartoons and 2 videos
If you prefer to do your own thing, the easiest way to take part is to pick one strong piece of your journalism and show readers how it was made: who you spoke to, what you checked, and why it matters to them.
World News Day is organised jointly by WAN-IFRA’s World Editors Forum, the Canadian Journalism Foundation and Project Kontinuum.
Follow the campaign
Follow along at worldnewsday.org and on social media with #WorldNewsDay #WND26 #ChooseTrustedJournalism #YourRightToKnow.
