02 Nov 2020 Democracy is freedom of the press
People the world over are willing – some are even praying for – a free and fair election in the USA on November 3. In ordinary times, for that to happen the media must also be free and fair. But these have not been ordinary times. Until very recently, the news media have been hobbled and fettered.
26 Oct 2020 Our common digital future
In his 2011 book, The Filter Bubble: What the Internet Is Hiding From You, Eli Pariser wrote, “the rise of pervasive, embedded filtering is changing the way we experience the internet and ultimately the world.”
19 Oct 2020 Investigative journalism is a form of activism
October 19, 2020 — Covid-19, migrants, and the climate crisis apart, public interest media is today’s hot topic. In the USA, Hungary, and the Philippines – to cite just three countries – some politicians have labelled media outlets critical of their policies and actions “fake media” or “fake news”. Among others, Russia, Turkey and China openly censor and supress what might be called media dissent or media activism: holding governments, corporations, and their leaders to account.
12 Oct 2020 In bringing about gender justice, men have a role to play
Women all over the world are celebrating the sixth instalment in 25 years of the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP). What is it? A series of extensive gender and media monitoring studies conducted every five years since 1995 by WACC Global, an international NGO that advocates communication rights in order to achieve social justice.
05 Oct 2020 Communication as a building block of a post-pandemic world
Since the emergence of the communication rights movements in the 1980s, activists have advanced a vision of the right to communicate as a highly political enterprise. The main idea at the heart of the movement has always been that democratizing media and communication is a way to transform power structures in favour of the public interest and of people and communities whose concerns and stories are rarely seen and heard.
28 Sep 2020 Investing in journalism that serves the public interest
Public interest journalism addresses the needs of citizens in a democratic community. Journalism that serves the public interest acknowledges that citizens are able to comprehend the policies and decisions that affect them. It assumes they are capable of applying their experience and values to arguments presented to them and of acting in ways that can make a positive difference to the world around them.
21 Sep 2020 Instagram – the opium of the people
Once used mainly by teens and young millennials, Instagram continues to grow as one of the most popular social media platforms. As of June 2018, Instagram had reached one billion monthly active users. More than 500 million use the platform daily.
14 Sep 2020 Challenging voter manipulation in the US elections
Free Press and four allies have filed a lawsuit (27 August 2020) challenging an order against social media companies. The US District Court, Northern District of California, will hear a complaint against President Trump’s “Executive Order on Preventing Online Censorship”, which targets online platforms with a range of official reprisals – including threats to their established legal immunity, investigation by government enforcement agencies, and the loss of significant government spending – for engaging in constitutionally protected speech, including combating misinformation online.
07 Sep 2020 Democracy demands diversity in the news
How can news organizations practice diversity and how can newsmakers contribute to overcoming division and exclusion? A digital panel session discussed these questions as part of German public broadcaster Deutsche Welle’s Global Media Forum 2020. It focused on the need for news organizations to promote diversity...