RightsCon Tunis 2019

This session is meant to consider the wider impact of the digital economy on democratic societies, and will take a hard look at both the benefits and harms of a world where global platforms are dominant distributors of news and information as well as major forums for public debate. Currently, the sector-specific approach to media regulation is inadequate. Regulatory disparities between digital platforms and heavily-regulated media businesses lead to market advantages that these platforms have (and often abuse). Additionally, many states are taking an approach to online content regulation by essentially “subcontracting censorship” to digital platforms. Thus, the time is right for addressing market mechanism- and failure-related challenges as well as regulatory and ultimately information flow challenges in digital environments.

One of the biggest problems with the debates raging in government legislatures and policy circles around the world is the lack of attention given to the news, journalism, and information ecosystems, and the implications of digital platforms’ market power on access and availability of quality news content on the Internet. To foster a pluralistic media ecosystem that strengthens democratic systems, combats dis/misinformation, and produces professional, high-quality, and fact-based news, media sustainability must be considered a significant priority. Any serious effort to address the myriad problems plaguing digital platforms must include competition authorities, economists, media policy experts as well as privacy, digital rights freedom of expression advocates. Building on this context, this session will explore five key issues/questions related to digital market mechanism- and failure-related challenges, including:

(1) How to monitor digital platforms’ activities, their market behaviours, and the potential consequences of those activities for citizens, journalists, news media organisations, and advertisers.

(2) Strategies to address regulatory imbalances – i.e., what are new approaches to the regulation of digital spaces?

(3) How to better inform consumers/citizens of their rights when dealing with digital platforms.

(4) What are the mechanisms that would support and sustain choice and quality of news and journalism in digital spaces?

(5) Market power and behaviour of digital advertising’s two most-dominant companies, Google and Facebook, what can be done to address competition barriers, and how to promote plurality, sustainability, and diversity as well as overall consumer choices.

The session will take a holistic approach to the topic by treating each of these factors as equally important pieces of the larger puzzle of media ecosystem failure as well as the subsequent problems it creates that are currently vexing governments.


Resources and recommended reading:

GFMD’s Internet Governance Resource Centre: https://gfmd.info/internet-governance/ 

Media freedom is in decline worldwide. According to the Committee to Protect Journalists, the number of journalists jailed for their work is at the highest level since the 1990s. Digital technologies have brought significant social, political, and economic changes. Given the democratic value of the global information ecosystem as a shared public good, there is a renewed need to safeguard its integrity. Given these concurrent problems, efforts to advance media freedom must seek to protect both the media’s right to speak and the public’s need to access information of public interest and value, in order to exercise their democratic rights.

Canada will be co-hosting with the UK the upcoming Global Conference for Media Freedom in London on July 10 to 11, 2019. This session, moderated by Canada’s Ambassador to Tunisia, Carol McQueen, will seek the views of international civil society organizations on how the Government of Canada should shape the agenda for the upcoming conference and what concrete outcomes we should be working towards to ensure the relevance and success of the event as a meaningful step in advancing progress to protect media freedom.

The conference in July will explore opportunities to advance the safety of journalists and media professionals, the integrity of the evolving global information ecosystem, and media freedom as an essential element of the development agenda. We seek to strengthen the rules-based international order, human rights, and democratic resilience by enhancing cooperation in addressing threats to media freedom, highlighting the achievements of countries taking steps to protect media freedom, and addressing disinformation while strengthening the right to freedom of opinion and expression.

The new “fake news” rhetoric is providing a dangerous framework for repression. CPJ has seen “fake news” used globally to justify attacks, harassment, and arrests of journalists. In order to frame the scope of the discussion, the session will share relevant research into where fake news legislation is in place, has been proposed, or in rare cases, been revoked and its impact on journalists and civil society. After a brief overview of existing research and its findings, participants will break into three groups for each of the categories to discuss potential action or approaches that could be helpful to repeal or prevent fake news laws, and to try to understand what led to their revocation in rare cases. How does “fake news” legislation manifest similarly or differently around the globe, and what can be learned? A rapporteur for each group will take notes and will report back to the entire group at the end of the session to share findings. CPJ will collect the findings and put together a lessons-learned and advocacy strategy based upon the discussion to share with participants. The takeaways from this discussion will inform CPJ’s and other organizations’ advocacy with both tech platforms and with newsrooms.

From synthetic media to audience research on the effectiveness of human rights messages to the "dos and don'ts" of framing, Know Thy Enemy will act as a primer on fighting disinformation. In particular, the session will address three key ingredients in the disinformation campaigner's "recipe book"— narrative framing, tech manipulation, and message spread—while highlighting the successful steps that some organizations are taking to address the phenomenon more effectively.

Know Thy Enemy will explore common issues civil society organizations face with regard to disinformation. It will include time for attendees to raise issues their organization is facing with regard to disinformation, as well as time to brainstorm with panelists about how to address those issues. This session will be especially helpful to organizational communications representatives, media/storytelling strategists, and anyone interested in developing strategic narratives.

This session is made by and for Arabic-speaking journalists working in areas of crisis and danger. Participants will be able to connect with renowned journalists Jaafar Abdul-Karim (DW Shabab talk), and Nazeeha Saeed, and hundreds of colleagues from around the region who will join and interact with the presenters and audience via live-stream. Based on their years of personal experiences and training expertise, Jaafar and Nazeeha will guide the participants through an interactive and engaging training session on the personal and digital safety of journalists and media makers. Expect to learn strategies developed through hands-on experience in dangerous and sensitive situations that our experts and audience found themselves in. Share your own advice on how you protect yourself and your sources under difficult circumstances while producing journalistic content working towards conflict-resolution.

أبطال الإعلام: قضايا السلامة الرقمية والشخصية : جلسة مباشرة عبر الإنترنت وعلى الأرض في موضوع السلامة الرقمية والشخصية لصنَّاع الإعلام الناطقين باللغة العربية في مناطق النزاع. 

يجسد التصميم المبتكر محورياً لجلستنا التي ستُستَهل بـ10 دقائق من الحديث الومضي التفاعلي لاستكشاف ماذا يعني إنتاج محتوى إعلامي ناقد ومستقل للإعلاميين في الوطن العربي دون تعريض سلامة غيرهم وسلامتهم للخطر. ستكون تبعات وانعكاسات رقمنة العالم على عمل وسلامة الإعلاميين العرب محور ومدار هذه الجلسة التي سيديرها مذيع دويتشه فيله جعفر عبد الكريم المتمرس، الذي سبق له وأن قام بتغطيات إعلامية من عدة مناطق نزاع فضلاً عمَّا لديه من باع في تسليط الضوء على التجارب الفردية وتأطيرها ضمن سياق أوسع. سوف يستضيف جعفر عبد الكريم خبيراً أو خبيرة من إحدى الأقطار المستهدفة للتحدث عن خبرته وإثارة أهم القضايا التي يواجهها أو تواجهها وزملائهم على صعيد السلامة الشخصية والرقمية لترسيم استراتيجيات إبداعية وابتكارية وعملية للإعلامين النقديين في أوقات الأزمات. ستذاع الجلسة بالكامل عبر الإنترنت بواسطة منصة ملائمة مثل Clickmeeting.  وسيتبع الحديث الومضي بفقرة تفاعلية تفي بغرض تصميم موضوعنا وجلستنا: حيث يسلم الحاضرون على الأرض والمتابعون عبر الإنترنت مداخلاتهم واسئلتهم ليقوم جعفر عبد الكريم بغربلتها وعرضها لتعزيز التفاعل الإقليمي وخلق فرصة متساوية للجميع للمشاركة في النقاش  وسوف تستكمل الجلسة بكُشك منصات التواصل الاجتماعي لمضاعفة التفاعل والاستفادة من خبرة زوار مؤتمر RightsCon. طوال وبعد فقرة المداخلات والنقاش سيكون لدى المشاركين فرصة تسجيل التصريحات، والآراء، والأسئلة المثرية للأفكار من خلال كشك منصات التواصل الاجتماعي لتنشر تلقائياً عبر الإنترنت

Parallel to the development of global online social media, ubiquitous mis-and-disinformation have been spreading on those platforms, often allegedly manipulated by foreign governments or political groups. This phenomenon poses serious questions over the role of social media and the internet in modern democratic societies.
Having analysed the fake news / disinformation-fighting ecosystem, we have identified the following actors: social media platforms, fact-checkers, monitoring platforms, analysts, media literacy experts. Clustered because of their different backgrounds and practices, we noticed very few cross-expertise emerge. Concretely, incorporating a social dimension to technological solutions would certainly develop more successful projects, and vice versa.
A more structured and connected community could bring significant added value. The issue of disinformation can take different forms from one country to another. Therefore, we want to bring together actors from different nationalities and backgrounds and build transnational positions.
We would like to interact with participants about their knowledge and skills regarding disinformation phenomenon and think about how the civil society involvement could efficiently contribute to fighting this growing phenomenon. 
From a case study on Iranian disinformation, we will try to identify needed skills and design cooperation possibilities in order both to tackle disinformation more rapidly and build early resilience to disinformation.

This panel brings together journalists and technologists who are exploring technology and strategies to discover and respond to rumors and false information in messaging apps. These collaborative journalism projects have potential to address challenges of information quality and spread in messaging apps, and build mutual trust between news outlets and their audiences. Panel participants will share insights from their experiences working on journalism-centered chat app projects, revealing challenges that would benefit from interdisciplinary and human-centered solutions: How should newsrooms take messaging apps into account in their daily work? How can journalists mitigate risk when working with these platforms? How can journalists scale their efforts to reach larger and more diverse audiences? What ethical and privacy concerns should journalists have when using these platforms? The session will include an interactive workshop where participants can explore the challenges raised in the session and propose ideas and solutions. Participants will leave with practical tools and tips they can apply in their communications and advocacy efforts.