EU Commissioner Harps On Importance Of Media Literacy

At the ongoing Deutsche Welle Global Media Forum in Bonn, Germany, the EU Commissioner for the Digital Economy and Society, Mariya Gabriel, has harped on the importance of media literacy and the need to suppress the circulation of fake news through social media.

Gabriel, who described the media as a “watchdog, acting as guardian of the public sphere in our modern democracies,” called for the application of editorial frameworks to digital outlets to help eradicate the spread of “disinformation” using social media.

She said in her opening remark at the GMF, “The internet and social media have offered the opportunity to make society more democratic and inclusive. 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.

“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.

“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,” she said.

Speaking also at the opening of the three-day forum, the Director General of DW Peter Limbourg, welcomed participants at the round-table who include Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office Michelle Müntefering and the minister-president of the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, Armin Laschet.

In her address, Müntefering said, “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.”

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.

“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,” said the Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office.