Five RSF proposals presented at G7 Media Ministers Meeting in Bonn (Germany)
Invited to the G7 summit of culture and media ministers by the German presidency, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Secretary-General Christophe Deloire presented RSF's proposals for strong and concrete actions to combat information chaos.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF) Secretary-General Christophe Deloire was invited to speak at the G7 Media Ministers Meeting in Bonn, Germany, on Sunday 19 June. The G7 Media, which was meeting for the first time, is composed of ministers from Germany, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Japan, as well as the vice-president of the European Commission for values and transparency. The Ukrainian Minister of Culture participated in the meeting remotely.
In their final declaration, the G7 ministers affirm the need to respond to misinformation, manipulation and obstacles to pluralism, which instil doubt and hatred. These observations are in line with the vision developed and promoted by RSF through the Information and Democracy Initiative launched in 2018. In this final declaration, reference is made to RSF and the Partnership on Information and Democracy.
During his speech, Christophe Deloire formulated RSF's proposals on five subjects: the Partnership for Information and Democracy initiated by RSF; the protection of democratic information spaces through the implementation of a reciprocity mechanism; the promotion of the reliability of information by means of tools such as the Journalism Trust Initiative; the sustainability of the media and the implementation of the recommendations for a New Deal for journalism; and the safety of journalists through the creation of the mandate of a Special Envoy of the United Nations Secretary-General on the safety of journalists.
“The mobilisation of the G7 media ministers is essential for the cooperation of democracies in the defence of a democratic digital space, in the face of the power of digital platforms and the large-scale disinformation perpetrated by despotic regimes," says Christophe Deloire. “We call on the G7 to take strong, ambitious and concrete action to address both the symptoms and the causes of information chaos. The G7 can be a decisive actor to guarantee the right to information.”
Christophe Deloire spoke at the G7 alongside Maria Exner, director of the German think tank PUBLIX. RSF's Director of Advocacy and Assistance, Antoine Bernard, had participated in the German G7 Presidency's reflection on the draft declaration adopted on 19 June and its implementation.
