The organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) warned during the World Economic Forum in Davos on Thursday (26th) that the risks to press freedom come from multiple fronts and must be addressed.
At the meeting, the Secretary General of the organization, Christopher Deloire, emphasized how journalism is threatened with attacks, intimidation and murders against media professionals. Shireen Abu Akleh, Al Jazeera TV correspondenttook place this month in Palestine.
For him, for the first time in the history of democracy, journalism is facing an “unprecedented competitive distortion” represented by social networks: “There is now a competitive advantage in the digital ecosystem for resentment, hate speech and extremism. And journalism is weakening.“
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Press freedom panel discusses threats to activity
At the “Freedom of the Press” panel of the World Economic Forum, RSF Director-General Christophe Deloire discussed threats and activities against journalists with Patrick Chappatte (Freedom Cartoonists Foundation); Kenneth Roth (Human Rights Watch); Sasha Vakulina (Euronews); Agnes Callamard (Amnesty International) and Edward Felsenthal (TIME).
Deloire criticized the impunity for the deaths of journalists around the world, again citing the example of Shireen Abu Akleh. “Israel said it would not investigate further” [a morte dela]. We need an international investigation.”
“If we look at the world map of press freedom, we see that it gets darker every year. Because journalism is under attack on different fronts.” “Journalists are attacked, their rights violated, and sometimes they are killed.”
Recalling that there are currently more than 400 journalists in prison around the world, he added that there are “invisible prisons” that threaten the profession:
“Journalism, in addition to journalists, is under attack. Press freedom predators can kill journalists. The way digital platforms and social networks work is killing journalism.”
‘Journalism is under attack – from different fronts.’@cdeloireReporters Without Borders Secretary-General on the serious dangers facing journalists around the world.
For more on this important topic, watch the session: https://t.co/KMAQOvb3QU@RSF_inter #wef22 pic.twitter.com/atEx88b7pw
— World Economic Forum (@wef) 26 May 2022
“As an organization that defends journalism, we have to defend journalists,” said the RSF director. But we also need to work within the ecosystem to secure a future for the social function of journalism.”
The organization, published on May 3, The 20th Global Press Freedom Index assessing the state of journalism in 180 countries. Brazil was ranked 110th, one of the 10 worst countries in Latin America.
hour country analysisRSF states “ The relationship between the press and the government has deteriorated drastically since the attacking President Jair Bolsonaro took office. regularly mobilizes armies of supporters in journalists and media speeches” and “social media labeled as an enemy of the state, as part of a strategy of coordinated attacks to discredit the press”.
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Press freedom in Latin America: Brazil among the ten worst countries, reveals global study
In a general analysis of the situation of press freedom in the world, RSF stresses its concerns over increasing polarizationwhat divisions form in relations between populations and between countries.
In the model of the American broadcaster Fox News, the NGO attributes the growth of so-called “opinion media” to an increase in internal divisions. And the control of the media by despotic regimes, divisions between countries and the growing threat to democracies.
For Being, two kinds of polarization, internal and external, have intense tensions. An example of this is the Ukraine war, which preceded a war of disinformation promoted by the Russian regime-controlled media.
#RSFIdex: RSF Introduces World of 2022 #Freedom of the press directory
1: Norway????????
2: Denmark????????
3: Sweden????????16: Germany????????
24: England????????
26: France????????
42: USA????????
58: Italy
71: Japan????????
110: Brazil????????
134: Algeria????♂
150: India????????178: Iran????????
179: Eritrea ????????
180: North Korea????????https://t.co/nrqbVRGVUJ pic.twitter.com/WO3izABZ56— English RSF (@RSF_en) May 3, 2022
Adopted RSF initiative in code against disinformation
In the same week as the World Economic Forum, a mechanism to promote trust in online journalism developed by Reporters Without Borders (RSF) was included in the European Union’s new Code of Practice on Misinformation – the Journalism Trust Initiative (JTI).
The new version of the European document has gone through almost a year of negotiations with major online platforms such as Meta, Google and TikTok, nonprofits and the European Commission.
The code consists of several categories of measures to be adopted by platforms to combat the spread of fake news.
One of them concerns the services provided to users and calls platforms to provide a function that promotes news and reliable sources of information.
According to RSF, the JTI was developed as a European self-regulatory standard by experts from around the world brought together by the organization.
“News organizations and other news and information providers can use this to certify that their practices meet the best professional journalistic standards,” the organization explains.
“At the same time, online platforms can use JTI to give trusted news and information sources greater visibility in search results and recommendation algorithms.”
“This innovative strategy to combat disinformation has the great advantage of not relying on content analysis, which could lead to censorship and undermine pluralism.”
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source: Noticias
