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Battles between far-right politicians, supported by like-minded publishers, and public broadcasters are not new. The reasonably polite argument is generally framed as resistance to publicly-supported competition for commercial enterprises. With the far-right’s ascendence in recent years, the underlying message, quite sinister, has appeared. Sometimes it falls apart spectacularly.
The association of German public broadcasting news editors (AGRA - Arbeitsgemeinschaft der öffentlich-rechtlichen Redakteursausschüsse) offered cooperation with colleagues at Austrian public broadcaster ORF “to fight together against populist attacks,” said spokesperson Gabriela Mirkovic, quoted by German media portal meedia.de (May 22). "If you look at that, you get a little bit scared that what we have in Germany is not taken for granted.” (See more about public broadcasting)
Video clips released a week ago by German news magazine Der Spiegel and Bavarian daily Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ) showed Austrian Vice-chancellor and founder of the far-right populist Austrian Freedom Party (FPÖ) Heinz-Christian Strache, cavorting about an Ibiza villa offering all manner of bounty to a “niece of a Russian oligarch.” He waxed expansively about taking over a major newspaper, disrupting public broadcaster ORF and “to build a media landscape like (Hungarian President Viktor) Orban did.” To say the Ibiza-Video went viral is an understatement. It was the very definition of an own goal. (See earlier report on the Ibiza adventure here)
ORF news editors accepted the offer from their German colleagues. “Populist parties have targeted public broadcasters and the free press as enemies of their policies, not only in Austria,” said ORF chief news editor Dieter Bornemann, quoted by Austrian daily Der Standard (May 22). The Ibiza-Video will now figure prominently at a previously planned media conference in Leipzig, Germany on “the pressure of populists.” (See more about media in Austria here)
Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz “accepted” the resignation of Vice-chancellor Strache and five FPÖ ministers. New elections have been called for September. ORF board of trustees Norbert Steger, also an FPÖ appointee, took a “leave of absence.”
Press freedom aspects brought to the forefront by the Ibiza-Video were in evidence at the Austrian Journalists Union awards this week. “What would have happened if the Ibiza video had not been released?” offered Salzburger Nachrichten editor-in-chief Manfred Perterer, who was honored for print journalism, reported Die Presse (May 23). “As stubborn seekers for truthfulness, we need courage.”
Eight big tech and social media firms plus representatives of 17 countries and the European Commission signed an agreement in Paris last week pledging a concerted effort to further combat the online spreading of extremist content. The document - Christchurch Call for Action - was presented by New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern and French President Emmanuel Macron. The multilateral agreement, unique between the private and public sectors, seeks technical, legal and regulatory solutions to a problem few recognized five years ago.
As a gunman murdered 51 and wounded 40 in two Christchurch, New Zealand mosques just two months ago he live streamed the act, with malice aforethought, uploading to popular social media platforms allowing even wider dissemination. The Australian white nationalist has been charged with multiple counts of murder and other crimes. This week (May 21) the charge of engaging in a terrorist act has been included. Prime Minister Ardern took immediate action to ban through legislation high-capacity automatic weapons. Major media in New Zealand agreed to “limit any coverage of statements that actively champion white supremacist or terrorist ideology,” reported Reuters (May 1). A trial is not expected to begin for several months. (See more about hate speech here)
Conspicuously absent from the Christchurch Call agreement was the United States government, which deferred to constitutional free speech protections. US President Donald Trump followed the rejection by asking American “conservatives” to report “bias” in social media. Several social media platforms recently banned known US right-wing extremists and conspiracy promoters.
“Sunlight is the best disinfectant,” offered esteemed American jurist and Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis in 1914, on the value of open public discourse. That was a different age. Laws and conventions enshrining speech and press freedom are regularly enjoined to forbid restrictions on the dissemination of points of view, no matter how egregious, in public places and through traditional media. Because of their digital ubiquity the internet and, certainly, social media are a different world.
“The platforms are failing their users and they're failing our citizens," said Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, who signed the Christchurch Call agreement, quoted by public broadcaster CBC (May 16). "They have to step up in a major way to counter disinformation and if they don't, we will hold them to account and there will be meaningful financial consequences."
Russian Federation’s ubiquitous regulator Roskomnadzor is opening up a public database of what it calls all news they consider fake, reports Moscow Times (May 16). Two months ago President Vladimir V. Putin signed a new law criminalizing distribution fake news that facilitates construction of the database and and various punishments to follow. The Russian Foreign Ministry already has a web portal for calling out fake news, the term now referring to any published criticism.
“The registry will be public, everything will be posted on our website with the names of the web sites and the names of the authors, respectively,” said Roskomnadzor chief Alexander Zharov at the “Truth and Fairness” forum held in Sochi, quoted by Russian news portal RBC.ru (May 15). The law penalizing distribution of fake news, however that is defined, came into effect at the end of March. Its official name is Law on Responsibility for the Distribution of Obviously Unreliable and Publicly Dangerous News. (See more about media in the Russian Federation here)
Indeed, Russian authorities over the last several months have been on a rip over news, fake or otherwise. President Vladimir Putin inscribed the Sovereign Internet Law May that effectively returns the old RuNet system “in order to centralize the management of the public telecommunications network” to restrict information prohibited for distribution in Russia, reported RBC.ru (May 1). The State Duma began considering in April an amendment to the General Administrative Code that would effectively ban distribution of foreign printed publications without a license from Roskomnadzor, a throw-back to Soviet days. In theory, the restrictions could be extended to the personal effects of travellers entering the country. A new one, offered this past week by Just Russia party official Mikhail Emelyanov, would give fines or jail terms for publishing anything that “leads to sanctions on the country or individuals,” reported Bloomberg (May 16). (See more about fake news here)
Some of this has received push-back, lightly of course. “It is extremely important that (Roskomnadzor) does not abuse blocking,” said State Duma Committee on Information Policy, Information Technologies and Communications chairman Leonid Levin, referring to new database, quoted by RBC.ru (May 15). "But it is the ability to remove information and the need to prove in court that the media really violated something, from our point of view, this is just additional protection measures that will allow this law to solve the problem of fake news.”
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