02/12/2021 Culture, Science, Education and Media
Collaboration between public authorities and the media is “one of the keyways of dealing with and overcoming a crisis”, and the authorities should “support the media so that the latter can perform their various roles to the full”, today said PACE Committee on culture.
Unanimously adopting a draft resolution, based on the report presented by Annicka Engblom (Sweden, EPP/CD), parliamentarians said that “the risks of misinformation, polarisation and populism on-line increases in times of crises” since debates tend to polarise and “fragment the community itself”, which is reflected in online and broadcast content.
The Committee called on Council of Europe member States to ensure the conditions for a “strong, pluralistic and independent media ecosystem that can support coherent deliberative processes locally and internationally, while encouraging a structured collaboration and networking - before, during and after crises - between the media, experts, public authorities, services and the public.
Considering “real danger” of misinformation, polarisation, populism on-line in times of crises, member States should also put in place policies that may encourage social media “to develop further their fact-checking capacities to ensure that business interests do not overshadow the need to respect ethical principles of any publication on-line”, and support the media which have developed procedures that allow them to play a new role of verifying the accuracy of user-generated information.