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UNESCO and UNDP launch consultation on the impact of disinformation

UNESCO partnered with UNDP to launch an online consultation to combat disinformation and address the ever more urgent concern for those working to build informed and inclusive societies. The consultation Forging a Path for a Better Information Ecosystem: Effective Governance, Media, Internet, and Peacebuilding Responses to Disinformation aims to gather innovative evidence, experiences, and perspectives on the impact of disinformation.

A wide range of actors fighting disinformation—including researchers, UN agencies, civil society groups, policy makers, media professionals, peacebuilders, fact checkers, digital experts, activists—are invited to share their contributions through participating in three virtual engagement rooms available on UNDP’s SparkBlue platform.

The consultation is open until Friday, 23 October 2020 and will provide the foundation for the creation of resources against disinformation for specific constituencies.

Disinformation erodes public trust in state institutions and news media, widening social divides and destabilizing already fragile environments. It can hurt public health outcomes, as well as compromise long-term democratic and human rights advancements. Both UNESCO and UNDP have supported responses by other stakeholders to tackle disinformation.. The two organizations also collaborate on initiatives concerning media and elections.

UNESCO has addressed the causes and consequences of disinformation surrounding COVID-19, as part of its mandate to promote freedom of information and freedom of expression on any medium and regardless of frontiers. To tackle the COVID-19 “disinfodemic”, UNESCO published two policy briefs analyzing the spread of viral disinformation on the coronavirus and outlining a typology of responses to the threat.

UNESCO has also offered massive online training courses for journalists, in order to provide them with the necessary verification tools and knowledge to cover the health crisis. In addition, UNESCO issued guidelines on international standards on freedom of expression, access to information, privacy and the safety of journalists for when judicial operators rule on cases when fundamental rights are restricted by responses to the pandemic outbreak.

As co-founders of the Broadband Commission for Sustainable Development, UNESCO and the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) released Balancing Act: Countering Digital Disinformation while respecting Freedom of Expression in September 2020. The comprehensive study provides a suite of sector-specific actionable recommendations and a 23-point framework to test disinformation responses at the global level.

Other actions undertook by UNESCO related to disinformation include the translation in multiple languages of the Handbook Journalism, fake news & disinformation, as well as the funding of a joint project with the European Union to minimize the impact of COVID-19 disinformation.