Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum opens in Bonn
June 11, 2018
“But online platforms are becoming a tool for spreading disinformation on such a scale, with the utmost speed and precision of targeting, that our democracies are confronted with an unprecedented phenomenon.” In her opening keynote at the Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum (GMF), EU Commissioner for the Digital Economy and Society Mariya Gabriel stressed the importance of media literacy and a pluralistic media landscape which serves as a “watchdog, acting as guardian of the public sphere in our modern democracies.”
“Some platforms have taken on functions traditionally associated with media outlets, entering the news business as content aggregators and distributors, without necessarily taking on the editorial frameworks and capabilities of such actors,” Gabriel said.
“Pluralism requires that the media are free, diverse, independent and sustainable,” she said.
Gabriel addressed the transformation of the media sector by outlining a package of EU measures , including a self-regulatory code of conduct for publishers and advertisers. Other measures include financial support for cross-border investigative journalism and projects defending journalists and media freedom.
Gabriel also appealed for enhanced media literacy programs, citing one study which said that among 15-24-year-olds, 60 percent were unable to distinguish between real news and false information. In a forthcoming European Week, educational initiatives to improve media literacy of citizens would be presented to the public, she said.
“Each of us has an active role to play,” said Gabriel. “Political leaders must ensure pluralism and inclusion while the industry must continue to develop its innovation and competitiveness.”
DW Director General Peter Limbourg opened the three-day conference in Bonn on Monday morning. He welcomed Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office Michelle Müntefering and Armin Laschet, minister president of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, among the guests from all over the world.
“We need to focus on how we can uphold freedom and access and how we can safeguard the freedom and independence of information, knowledge and news,” Müntefering said.
The politician said the GMF offers “the needed space” to reflect on how to improve access to information “so that truth and facts retain the upper hand.” She said the conference was addressing “very timely questions” in view of the social media comments made by U.S. President Trump after leaving the G7 summit in Canada.
Müntefering: “We must improve our resilience to misinformation and propaganda by countering it with fact-based information and our own positive narrative, communicated in a self-confident manner. Interest in our actions and positions has grown outside Germany, which also means that we must be better able to explain our foreign policy. In this way, we can create a counterweight to propaganda and misinformation, a counterweight that speaks for itself and dries up the breeding ground for targeted misinformation.”
Around 2,000 experts from over 100 countries are gathering at the World Conference Center Bonn (WCCB) until June 13. They will be discussing politics and human rights, media development and innovative journalism concepts. The GMF is coordinated by Germany’s international broadcaster Deutsche Welle.