Dialogue and free speech for our democracies
On Wednesday 3 May 2017 the EJN’s Tom Law took part in a roundtable on the impact fake news, hate speech and post-truth mechanisms at a meeting of Nordic Council of Ministers at UNESCO’s World Press Freedom Day celebrations in Jakarta Indonesia.
The discussions – from 12.45 am – 1.45 pm – were based on a book authored by 14 journalists and academics who reflect on topics such as; algorithms as the new editors; how hate speech is abusing young females; and the business model of fake news.
The book concludes that to address these issues there is a need for greater standards from ethical standards to all media; that violations online must be firmly tackled; that there must be a political will to ensure pluralism also in smaller societies.
At the roundtable, the Nordic Council of Ministers expected that an open-minded dialogue among experts would:
· Deliver ideas on how future and credible media can deliver new ways of dialogue
· Propose methods for parliaments and governments to develop sustainable pluralistic media in full respect of the principle of arms’ length
· Contribute with ideas on how to counter trolls and hate speech and fake news as young people should be encouraged to take part in the debate and politics, not be prevented
Nordic Council of Ministers will follow up the ideas and results from the round table for further discussions and decisions.
At this meeting the EJN’s Tom Law talked about:
- How ethical journalism can be an inspiration for free expression and media literacy. Read more here.
- How the EJN’s hate-speech test is useful tool for journalists and media literacy policy makers.