Fake news and elections in Turkey & the Visegrad countries | New EJN events + our weekly round up of global media ethics news
15 June 2018
TURKEY: ELECTIONS IN A FAKE NEWS CLIMATE
"Snap elections called in Turkey are set to take place on June 24 against a backdrop of turmoil, conflict and crises, and amid a continued clampdown on freedom of expression and civil liberties", writes Beatrice White for the Green European Journal. "Fake news, political interference, and conflicts of interest have eroded public trust in the country’s media and reinforced the sense that coming elections are unlikely to be free or fair."
FAKE NEWS IN VISEGRAD: OVERUSED AND UNDERESTIMATED
"Voters in the Visegrad Four countries rely on increasingly blurred lines between true and imaginary information while making their choice at polling stations", Maryia Sadouskaya-Komlach wrote in an article for the Green European Journal earlier this year. "However, there is no unity in the struggle for truth among the heads of Central and Eastern European states."
Internet Reform: Facebook and a Fight Behind Enemy Lines: Aidan White reviews a new book outlining arguments for abandoning social media by Jaron Lanier, an internet pioneer who says we should reclaim the net for the sake of our sanity and our humanity.
‘Got an angry Muslim for me?’: Investigative journalist Zoë Papaikonomou and organizational anthropologist Annebregt Dijkman examine why Dutch news media still fail to become more culturally diverse in their new book.
Pushing Back Against Hate Propaganda: Journalists need to understand how hate propaganda actually works, according to EJN adviser Cherian George.
Scroll down for our summary of global media ethics news.
OPPORTUNITIES
Our friends at Africa e Mediterraneo are hosting their annual International Summer School on Migration and Asylum in Bologna, Italy from 9-14 July. This year the focus will be 'Labour Integration of Migrants and Refugees'. Find out more and how to apply here.
EJN ACTIVITIES
As part of the Ethical Journalism Network's Ethics in the News series of events at the Frontline Club the EJN will be hosting a screening of The Workers Cup, a film that takes us inside the labour camps of Qatar, on Tuesday 26 June 2018.
The screening, which is timed to coincide with the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia, will be followed by a debate - moderated by our Chairperson, Dorothy Byrne - on how media report on human rights issues connected to major sporting events.
- Practical advice for tackling gender imbalance in news media from #WINSummit18 (WAN-IFRA) - Tips for reporting on gender-based violence (IJNET) - The Reporter Who Exposed New York Times Star Glenn Thrush's Sexual Misconduct Says She Was the Victim of a Smear Campaign (Jezebel)
FACT CHECKING
- How to fact-check votes on abortion and gay marriage (Poynter) - A Marketing Site Deleted Over 7,000 Articles After It Was Caught Stealing Fact-Checks And Plagiarizing (BuzzFeed)
- Stealth Editing & Transparency: Why Archiving Fact Checks Is Vital (Real Clear Politics)
SUICIDE
- ‘Low-hanging fruit’: Confessions of journalists covering celebrity deaths (DigiDay) - Coverage of Kate Spade’s death reveals need for media diversity (CJR)
- Best practices for covering suicide responsibly (Poynter)
PLATFORMS & TRUST
- Platforms, publishers, and the uneasy alliance at the heart of journalism (CJR)
- Can Anyone Stop The Rise Of Fake News On WhatsApp? (Esquire)
GLOBAL ETHICS NEWS
AMERICAS
BRAZIL: Judiciary and Congress confront 'fake news' in Brazil, but critics fear negative effects for freedom of expression (Knight Center) US: Why the Media Were Right to Republish Barr’s Racism (MDI) US: Why untrue tweets from Trump shouldn’t be unchallenged in headlines (Washington Post) US: Trump has turned words into weapons. And he's winning the linguistic war (Guardian)
In the U.S., the left trusts the mainstream media more than the right, and the gap is growing (Nieman Labs)
Here is fresh evidence that journalists may misunderstand the public (Poynter)
AFRICA
5 opportunities and challenges facing African newsrooms (IJNET)
ASIA
The media who cried wolf: how Eurasia’s autocracies use media for crisis management (Open Democracy) INDONESIA: No more live broadcast of terrorist trials (Jakarta Post) PHILIPPINES: Maria Ressa Golden Pen of Freedom Acceptance Speech (WAN-IFRA)
EUROPE
Struggling public media in Europe are under attack from right-wing politicians (Poynter) AUSTRIA: EFJ calls on Austrian government to protect public service media (EFJ) FRANCE: France moves to fight the 'manipulation of information' instead of 'fake news' (Poynter) UK: Majority of UK public wants Government to do more to tackle fake news, Reuters report finds (Press Gazette)
MIDDLE EAST
SYRIA: Judge allows US journalist in Syria to challenge inclusion on ‘kill list’ (MEMO)
EJN ANNUAL REPORT 2017/2018
The Ethical Journalism Network Annual Report for 2017 and the first months of 2018 covers a period in which the buzzwords “fake news” and “post-truth” provided a misleading but appropriate focus for the news industry.
In recent months the challenges of a flawed information landscape have been dramatically exposed with Google, Facebook and other internet giants being called to account for their failure to promptly deal with the pollution of the information landscape.
The EJN's Trust in Ethical Journalism reports looks at how the communications revolution is continuing to pose more questions than answers over a public crisis of confidence, both in democracy and in sources of public information.
Can 2018 be the year when ethical journalism, a human instinct beyond encoding and algorithmic definition, finally gets the recognition it deserves?
Last month the International Centre for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD) published guidelines on Media and Trafficking in Human Beingsauthored by the Ethical Journalism Network's Aidan White.
After a screening of 'Another News Story' the Chair of the Ethical Journalism Network, Dorothy Byrne, who is the Head of News and Current Affairs at Channel 4, moderated a discussion with director / producer Orban Wallace, producer Verity Wislocki, and forced migration researcher Ahmad al-Rashid. You can also listen to the event as a podcast.
Watch the EJN's Tom Law talk about how a fake news story triggered a major geo-political crisis in May last year and the effects are still being felt across the Gulf nations on Al Jazeera's Inside Story.
Watch EJN Adviser Bill Orme address an informalhearing at the United Nationsas part of the preparatory process for an international conference for migration to adopt a global compact for safe, orderly and regular migration.
