The role of the media in times of crisis
- Author(s):
- Parliamentary Assembly
- Origin
- Assembly
debate on 25 January 2022 (4th sitting) (see Doc. 15437, report of the Committee on Culture, Science, Education
and Media, rapporteur: Ms Annicka Engblom). Text
adopted by the Assembly on 25 January 2022 (4th sitting).
1. While freedom, pluralism and independence
of the media are vital preconditions for our democratic societies,
the importance of a healthy media ecosystem is even more apparent
in times of crisis. Free and independent media must provide citizens
with accurate, comprehensive and high-quality information; this
being both a right and a duty. It is vital for citizens to have
access, through the media, to relevant, reliable, clear and factual
information during a crisis, as this can have a decisive impact
on society’s ability to cope effectively with difficult situations
such as health crises, environmental disasters, acts of terrorism,
social violence or armed conflicts.
2. The media can play a crucial role in facilitating dialogue
and multicultural understanding, and in preventing or minimising
oppression and conflict. However, when a crisis, such as the recent
Covid-19 pandemic, threatens the prevailing understanding of individual
freedoms, debates tend to polarise and fragment society itself,
which is reflected in online and broadcast content. Such polarising
crises are likely to happen in the future and their impact on public
debate demands that the media take a comprehensive approach to effectively
informing and involving the public.
3. Free and independent media must be the driving force behind
critical analysis of the causes of a crisis. Media professionalism
is one of the preconditions for constructive public debate on how
to deal with a crisis and this debate must involve politicians and
various groups in society. The media help to stimulate discussion about
the right measures to counter the causes and adverse effects of
a crisis and to overcome it; in addition, they facilitate citizen
participation in discussions about the long-term changes that are
needed to increase society’s resilience to crises of the same type
or to prevent them more effectively.
4. The media help to reinforce the legitimacy of the decisions
taken by political leaders and to improve understanding of both
their content and the reasons for them; the media also play a key
role as a link between decision makers and the public. Moreover,
the media can take on an educational role: they must be capable of
analysing and explaining the new obligations being imposed to tackle
a crisis situation and the behaviour that the authorities expect
from the public.
5. The risk of online disinformation, polarisation and populism
increases in times of crisis. The threat posed by “information disorder”
is amplified and the need to prevent and counter it becomes more
pressing. The requirement for professionalism and thoroughness in
the checking of information before it is disseminated is even greater
in times of crisis and the media must be aware of their heightened
responsibility – that they must fully assume – including in terms
of effectively countering conspiracy theories and inflammatory discourse.
6. While this is a responsibility of all media outlets, public
service media have a specific role that needs to be recognised,
strengthened and safeguarded. Public service media must remain independent
and serve the public because they have a specific remit to fulfil:
to be both a force for social cohesion and integration of all individuals
and a broad platform for pluralist public debate. In the particular
context of crises, public service media should encourage citizens
to develop critical thinking and the capacity to compare various
sources of information.
7. As far as social media platforms are concerned, given the
risk of false news or unchecked information being disseminated on
their networks, operators should redouble their efforts to counter
this trend by developing fact-checking tools and promoting reliable
and accurate sources of information. Lockdowns and forced restrictions
on movement during the Covid-19 pandemic have significantly increased
the importance of the media in general because the free flow of
information has also become a means of overcoming the isolation faced
by individuals whose freedom of movement is restricted, while the
restrictions have made social media much more important as a means
of maintaining family, interpersonal, work and social contacts.
8. These various functions are interconnected and complement
one another. It is important not to divide them up or limit them.
It is wrong and dangerous to assume that governments are best placed
to control and distil information in times of crisis as a way of
avoiding the dissemination of inaccurate information and effectively
directing collective behaviour. An approach of that kind is incompatible
with democratic principles and the protection of the right to freedom
of expression as enshrined in Article 10 of the European Convention on
Human Rights (ETS No. 5).
9. Collaboration between public authorities and the media is
one of the key ways of dealing with and overcoming a crisis. The
authorities should support the media so that the latter can perform
their various roles to the full. There needs to be a willingness
to co-operate despite the critical stance of some sections of the media
towards government action, as collaboration between the authorities
and the media should in no way undermine the independence of the
latter.
10. There is a need to review existing multidisciplinary knowledge
and approaches to media and society, communication and crisis management.
The media should be able to actively play their role, not only as
a means of communicating with the public and shaping public opinion,
but also as a channel for the transfer of expert knowledge to institutions.
11. Measures to enhance the role of the media during crises should
involve institutions, services, experts and civil society in order
to make community, institutional and research processes visible
and accessible, and to build trust. Maintaining a resilient and
adaptable media ecosystem is the best way to confront crises in democracies.
Efforts need to be focused on long-term policies, which start long
before a crisis begins.
12. In light of the above, the Parliamentary Assembly calls on
Council of Europe member States to recognise and value the role
of the media as crucial to the management of a crisis and as an
essential element in the wider network of communication, especially
in times of crisis, and, in particular, to:
12.1 ensure the conditions for a strong, pluralistic and independent
media ecosystem that can support coherent deliberative processes
locally and internationally;
12.2 encourage structured collaboration and networking – before,
during and after crises – between the media, experts, public authorities,
services and the public;
12.3 support collaboration between public service media and
institutions with a view to providing permanent spaces for citizens
to access and share knowledge about scientific processes in a transparent
way, and to recognise the constant evolution of scientific knowledge;
12.4 support critical research and investigative journalism
that can explain complex processes that are still being developed
and that aim to expose unfair and misguided actions of powerful
authorities and businesses, such as corruption and abuse of power;
12.5 support media coverage of scientific debate in order to
raise public awareness and increase knowledge of both the technical
and social nature of any changes and responsibilities involved in
the management and resolution of an emergency.
13. Considering the real danger of online misinformation, polarisation
and populism in times of crisis, the Assembly also calls on member
States to:
13.1 bring their legislation
and practice into line with Recommendation CM/Rec(2007)3 of the Committee
of Ministers to member states on the remit of public service media
in the information society and with Assembly
Resolution 2255 (2019) “Public service
media in the context of disinformation and propaganda” and
Recommendation 1878 (2009) “Funding
of public service broadcasting”;
13.2 put in place policies that may reduce the concentration
of opinion-shaping power held by social media and create a counter-power,
and regulate social media to prevent powerful digital businesses from
becoming centres of political power;
13.3 put in place policies that may encourage social media
to further develop their fact-checking capacity to ensure that business
interests do not overshadow the need to respect the ethical principles of
any online publication;
13.4 support the development of a strong mixed-media approach
across sectors in order to counteract polarisation and misinformation
driven by digital conglomerates and exclusivist narratives;
13.5 ensure that administrative services and institutions can
use social media to provide, monitor and collect information during
crises, and that citizens can use these media to find information
or provide their own. This should be done in compliance with relevant
privacy legislation, in particular the Convention for the Protection
of Individuals with regard to Automatic Processing of Personal Data
(ETS No. 108);
13.6 support the media which have developed verification procedures
that allow them to play a new role in verifying the accuracy of
user-generated information while guaranteeing the right to freedom
of expression;
13.7 support community media projects and seek to involve citizens
more closely in public debates by taking specific measures such
as creating and maintaining multidisciplinary social media spaces
and involving students in educational activities for the community
and communication with the latter before and during a crisis;
13.8 support targeted training in science journalism that covers
the social sciences as well as the hard sciences, to enhance journalists’
ability to report on scientific work and help the public to understand
the scientific dimension of crisis management;
13.9 support training offered by national and international
journalism organisations, universities and research centres that
focuses on the sociological study of journalism and on constructive
approaches to journalism in training;
13.10 support journalistic coverage of both local and global
contextualisation and narratives, and discourage nationalistic approaches
in the media;
13.11 support the production of documentaries and podcasts in
order to provide knowledge that can increase the visibility of science,
services and institutional work through cultural media output.
