The UN joins in on the war against Fake News

Publishes a Handbook for Journalists and students of Journalism to fight the “information disorder”

Concerned with its rampant spread, the United Nations has joined in on the war against Fake News funding the development and publication of a new handbook, Journalism, Fake News & Disinformation, to help equip journalism to “tackle the scourge of information disorder.”

Taken up as part of its “Global Initiative for Excellence in Journalism Education”, under the UNESCO’s International Programme for the Development of Communication (IPDC), the initiative takes cognizance of the fact that more often than not, it is journalists who are the first victims of fake news.

Therefore, it seeks to strike where it all begins – journalism schools. While the handbook could well be a very useful resource for practicing journalists and reporters, at a very basic level by serving as an internationally-relevant model curriculum, open to adoption or adaptation, which responds to the emerging global problem of disinformation that confronts societies in general, and journalism in particular.

Julie Posetti, senior research fellow at Oxford University’s Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism, and Cherilyn Ireton, executive director of the World Editors Forum, who curated the Handbook under commission from UNESCO, said it was done in the context of the “growing international concern about a disinformation war - a war in which journalism and journalists have become prime targets. In a blog post this week the two editors also maintained, this targeting by “strongman” politicians and deceptive corporate actors, from Trump to Duterte, Cambridge Analytica to Bell Pottinger – makes fighting back against weaponized information mission critical for journalism.”

The model curriculum, which is also a compendium of writings and research by some of the world’s leading journalism researchers and practitioners involved in the war against fake news.  Contributing authors include: First Draft News’ Claire Wardle, Poynter’s Alexios Mantzarlis, Meedan’s Tom Trewinnard, Dig Deeper’s Fergus Bell, and Lebanon-based media literacy specialist Magda Abu-Fadil. The Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s Alice Matthews and the Ethical Journalism Network’s Tom Law provided additional research.

The genesis of the Handbook goes back to a joint statement in early 2017 by the UN Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Opinion and Expression, the OSCE’s Representative on Freedom of the Media, the Organization of American States’ Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression, and the African Commission on Human and People’s Rights Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information, in which they expressed their alarm at the spread of disinformation and propaganda, and attacks on news media as “fake news.” 

“[We are] alarmed at instances in which public authorities denigrate, intimidate and threaten the media, including by stating that the media is “the opposition” or is “lying” and has a hidden political agenda, which increases the risk of threats and violence against journalists, undermines public trust and confidence in journalism as a public watchdog, and may mislead the public by blurring the lines between disinformation and media products containing independently verifiable facts,” the statement said.

At the core of the issue the authors of the Handbook stress that “information fabrication” or fake news itself is nothing new. What is new is the technology and social behaviour that amplifies it enormously leading to the “information disorder.”

While detailing seven ways to identify fake news, the Handbook itself is divided into seven modules which scope out the evolution and the crisis and providing practical tools and exercises to equip journalists to fightback.