Co-chaired by Nobel peace laureate Shirin Ebadi and RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire, the “Information and Democracy Commission” includes Nobel economics laureates Joseph Stiglitz and Amartya Sen, Peruvian novelist and Nobel literature laureate Mario Vargas Llosa and Nigerian human rights lawyer Hauwa Ibrahim, a recipient of the European Parliament’s Sakharov Prize.

Download the mission statement HERE

“The Declaration’s function will be to state principles, define objectives for decision-makers and propose forms of governance,” the mission statement says. It must “constitute a point of reference that will mobilize all those who are committed to defending a free and pluralistic public space, which is essential for democracy.”

By Thomas Kent - Washington Post - 6 September 2018

The most powerful false-news weapon in history is around the corner. The media industry has only a short time to get ahead of it.

If technology continues its current advance, we may soon face totally convincing videos showing events that never happened — created so effectively that even experts will have trouble proving they’re fakes.

“Deep fake” video will be able to show people saying, with the authentic ring of their own voices, things they never said. It will show them doing things they never did, by melding their images with other video or creating new images of them from scratch.

At a political level, deftly constructed video could show a political leader advocating for the reverse of what she stands for, or portray bloody events that never happened. It could trigger riots, swing elections, and sow panic and despair.

At a business and personal level, it could be equally dangerous. Fake statements by chief executives or banking officials could throw financial markets into turmoil. False videos could be created about anyone’s private life, with devastating effects.

• In the EJN President's Notebook, Aidan White writes that leading politicians in Britain are calling for a windfall tax levy on tech giants like Facebook, Google and Amazon in order to help fund more public interest journalism. In doing so some observers believe that they may have opened the door to ways of solving a crisis not just for cash-strapped news media, but perhaps also for democracy itself.
• Shahidul Alam – A courageous journalists who exemplifies why we must defend press freedom: Human rights campaigner Lyndall Stein calls for the release of journalist and photographer, Shahidul Alam, who has been held by Bangladeshi authorities since 5 August after he gave an interview to Al Jazeera about recent street protests. Stein, who has known Alam since the early 90’s, describes him as “a powerful courageous figure who exemplifies why we must defend freedom of the press.”
• Migration reporting must provide solutions: Powerful, emotional testimony is not enough: Focus on the positive while not ignoring the negative when reporting on migration, is a key message from Aidan White, the President of the EJN, who has been judging entries to this years EU-funded Migration Media Awards.