Session
Organizer 1: Julia Haas, 🔒OSCE
Speaker 1: Courtney Radsch, Civil Society, Western European and Others Group (WEOG)
Speaker 2: Elena Perotti, Civil Society, Intergovernmental Organization
Speaker 3: Brouillette Amy, Civil Society, African Group
Julia Haas, Intergovernmental Organization, Intergovernmental Organization
Julia Haas, Intergovernmental Organization, Intergovernmental Organization
Julia Haas, Intergovernmental Organization, Intergovernmental Organization
Roundtable
Duration (minutes): 60
Format description: The roundtable format fosters a collaborative and inclusive setting, allowing all participants and IGF experts to engage. The session aims for multi-stakeholder discussions, the format of a roundtable facilitates direct communication on an equal level between all stakeholders. 60 minutes enables an in-depth discussion while respecting IGF participants’ other commitments. The session moderators will facilitate discussions both on-site and online to ensure inclusive debates. Speakers will be both on-site and online.
- Which steps are needed to enhance access to quality media and public interest information in the digital information ecosystem? - What can be learned from regulatory frameworks of existing information technologies regarding generative AI and its impact on the information landscape? - From the perspective of access to information, which steps are needed to define public interest and rules to prioritize public over commercial interest?
What will participants gain from attending this session? While directly linked to the second theme of the IGF to enhancing the digital contribution to peace, development, and sustainability, this workshop also addresses the third subtheme as creating healthy information spaces and leveraging digital technology to promote democratic debate advances human rights and inclusion in the digital age. Session participants will gain insight on the OSCE guidance on ensuring states uphold their commitments towards freedom of expression and media freedom in the digital realm, including by providing appropriate regulatory frameworks for platforms and their (automated) content governance. Building on this guidance, the workshop seeks to actively the audience and multi-stakeholder expertise present at the Internet Governance Forum to identify which steps are needed to enhance access to quality media and public interest information. The session will provide a platform to discuss how to define public interest and to identify rules to prioritize public over commercial interest.
Description:
In an evolving landscape where journalism intersects with technology, the traditional role of journalists as the primary editors of public interest information has shifted profoundly. With big tech playing an increasingly prominent role in content generation and curation, online platforms’ governance processes significantly impact media freedom and poses challenges to foundational democratic principles. This workshop will explore the complex interplay between technology, journalism, and democracy, aiming to identify concrete steps towards a healthy online information ecosystem. To navigate the impact of digital technologies on democracy, it is imperative to ensure journalism’s democratic role in producing widely accessible, factual and unbiased information while promoting transparency and accountability. While providing an enabling environment for independent quality media is essential, questions regarding accessibility and online exposure to public interest information persist. The workshop aims to discuss both the importance of information integrity and the integrity of online information spaces. It will explore reinforcing the human rights framework with a public interest perspective to uphold media freedom, which is undermined by online platforms and emerging technologies, and weaponized by authoritarian governments and malicious actors. This workshop seeks to explore how technology can be harnessed to serve journalism and democracy, by establishing rules that prioritize public interest, countering monopolized technology threats to media freedom, pluralism, and democratic values. The workshop aims to examining measures by states and other stakeholders to enhance access to reliable, diverse, and public interest information, thereby empowering individuals and societies, and contributing to a resilient, active citizenry and sustained democracies on a global scale. Through these discussions, the workshop aims to contribute to a roadmap for the future of journalism, where technology empowers people and fosters a healthy information ecosystem that is transparent, accountable, and public interest-aligned.
The workshop seeks to identify ways forward to enhance the availability and accessibility of quality media and public interest content online through technological means and improved internet governance. Secondly, the session aims to contribute to a roadmap for the future of journalism and feeding into a broader endeavour to explore how emerging technologies can reinforce democratic processes by fostering healthy information spaces for public debate.
Hybrid Format: The session moderators will facilitate discussions both on-site and online to ensure inclusive debates. Speakers will be both on-site and online. The speakers will be key contributors who will set the scene but the focus is on moderated discussions rather than a formal panel set-up.