The EFJ will be represented by its General Secretary Ricardo Gutiérrez.

The EFJ will be represented by its General Secretary Ricardo Gutiérrez.

At the meeting of the Council of Europe Steering Committee on Media and Information Society (CDMSI), from 5 to 8 December 2017, participants discussed a series of documents and recommendations currently relevant for journalists and media workers. A study by Claire Wardle and Hossein Derakhshan, commissioned by the Council of Europe, highlighted the various aspects of what the authors call “Information Disorders” (not “fake news”). These information disorders come in three forms: misinformation, disinformation and malinformation. Information disorders can be organised or unorganised, and are emotional, visual and repetitive. To counter information disorders, the authors recommend action by content providers…

Ricardo Gutiérrez will represent the EFJ at the first meeting of the EU High Level Group on Fake News.

“Democracy, journalism and literacy in the era of post-truth” was the topic of a discussion at the European Parliament on 5 December 2017, held by the Centre for Media Pluralism and Media Freedom (CMPF), Media Literacy for Citizenship (EAVI), and Italian MEPs Barbara Spinelli and Curzio Maltese. Barbara Spinelli, the rapporteur of an own-initiative report on media freedom, referred in her analysis to the unprecedented level of self-censorship among journalists referring to the  Council of Europe study”Journalist under pressure” . He report will among other deal with this, the urgent need for whistleblowers’ protection and how to tackle the effects…

Le Conseil de la Jeunesse organise un colloque autour des Fake News. Les Fake News sont de plus en plus présentes sur Internet. Elles ne sont pas nouvelles mais leur forme a changé avec les années et l’évolution des médias. Désormais, elles sont rapides et mondialisées.  Comment les repérer ? Comment s’outiller pour distinguer une information crédible d’une information tronquée ? Comment développer une analyse critique face au flot d’informations quotidiennes auxquelles nous sommes confrontés ? Toutes ces questions vous intéressent ?  L’enjeu du colloque « Fake news, armes de désinformation massive ?» est de se questionner sur les informations erronées auxquelles sont confrontés…

Brussels, 13-14 November 2017.  Yannis Kotsifos, member of the European Federation of Journalists (EFJ) Steering Committee and Renate Schroeder, EFJ director participated in the European Commission’s Directorate-General for a communications networks, content and technology multi-stakeholder conference on fake news. The European Commission engages on a broad-based consultation about how to deal with disinformation online. The objective is to help the Commission in close cooperation with consultation partners, define the scope of the fake news issue and reach consensus on how to proceed. There is no common understanding on what fake news is. Guy Berger, director of the Freedom of Expression…

“Fake news” is currently being discussed in sensitive contexts such as the US Presidential elections, Brexit and after EU electoral campaigns. The reasons why this phenomenon is more pervasive and impactful today than ever before are the ease with which news can be posted and shared on social media, the velocity with which such news may spread, and the global reach it might effortlessly attain. Consequently, President Juncker has taken up the challenge of fake news in his letter of Intent to the European Parliament and equally in his Mission letter to Commissioner Gabriel. He calls for action to “address…

The European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), will hold its 11th Civil Society Media Seminar on “The role of EU civil society in a globalised world of communications” from 23 to 24 November 2017 in Madrid. This event is principally directed to journalists and communications/press officers from civil society organisations representing employers, workers and other social, occupational, economic and cultural organisations. The EFJ will be represented by its GS, Ricardo Gutiérrez.

Fake news have become an unavoidable term when talking about (digital) media. They are seen as an effective tool of manipulating political discourse, a way for content creators to generate revenue from advertising and are easily widespread on the social media. The parliamentary group of social democrats in the European Parliament organised on Wednesday (06/09/2017) a conference to tackle the political and legal challenges linked to fake news and invited Ricardo Gutiérrez, General Secretary of the European Federation of Journalists, as an expert to the panel. Arnaud Mercier, professor of political communication at Panthéon-Assas University in Paris, said that fake…

MEP Marietje Schaake is organising a seminar on ‘Protecting European Democratic in a post-truth society” on Wednesday, 6 September 2017 between 15:00 and 18.00 in the European Parliament, Brussels (Joszef Antall building JAN 4Q1). Please register at alde.eu/events to attend this hearing.   DETAILED PROGRAMME 1st Panel: Fake news – general overview   15:00                     Marietje Schaake MEP, Moderator 15:10                     Professor Philip N. Howard, Oxford University Computational Propaganda Project 15:20                     David Kaye, UN Special Rapporteur on Protection of Freedom of Speech 15:30                     Q&A   2nd Panel: Fake news and real actors behind   16:00                     Petras Auštrevičius MEP, Moderator 16:05                     Boris Reitschuster, Author…

The year 2016-2017 has seen intense debates over fake news, algorithms and distrust towards journalists and journalism. The 2017 Digital News Report, published by the Reuters Institute for the study of journalism, contains interesting findings on some of the prevailing narratives around these issues. Social media are not doing a good job in separating fact from fiction The overall trust in news – 43% all media combined – drops significantly when it comes to social media, as only 24% thinks that social media do a good job in separating fact from fiction, compared to 40% for the news media. Only…

Fake news on digital media has become a potent means of manipulating political discourse around the world. Social media provides a platform for the free, and largely unregulated, widespread dissemination of fake news stories. Furthermore, it enables content creators to generate revenue from advertising. The parliamentary group of social democrats in the European Parliament is organising a conference to tackle political and legal challenges linked to fake news as well as different responses to the phenomena from several EU Member States and the European Commission. The EFJ will be represented by its GS Ricardo Gutiérrez. AGENDA  13.00 – 13.05            …

How to fight fake news? Do facts still matter? The European Centre for Press and Media Freedom (ECPMF) took part in this burning issue with the conference “Defending the truth in a post-truth era” taking place on June 13 and 14 in Leipzig, Germany. Many case studies were showcased by different NGOs and stakeholders highlighting the need to invest in media literacy, fact-checking trainings and collaborative journalism. LieDetectors is one of the project presented by Juliane von Reppert-Bismarck, aiming to bring journalists into classrooms in order to give them an overview of what a fake news is and to help children…

The future role of media is under question – new online media companies are emerging, print advertising is in decline and there is more and more talk about ‘fake-news’, which contributes to losing readers’ trust. The Greens in the European Parliament organised on Wednesday (07/06/2017) a Democratic Discourse with experts discussing the new trends in the digital news landscape and how journalists and media outlets are living up to them. “The majority of professional journalism is still funded by newspapers – 69 % of the funds for professional journalism came from newspaper companies in the UK in 2012,” pointed out…

“A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes,” says the quote by Mark Twain which speakers used as a starting point at the debate on journalism in ‘post-truth’ climate at Difference Day. The event was hosted by the Centre for Fine Art (BOZAR) in Brussels on the occasion of World Press Freedom Day (WPFD), which is celebrated May 3rd every year. One of the five panels on journalism and press freedom talked about the spread of misinformation, which is widely scattered through different platforms and an alarming phenomenon. Experts on the panel emphasized the…