The Council of Complaints organizes the conference “Fake News and Challenges for Truth in the Media”
The Council of Complaints, one of the main structures of AMA, in meeting some of the key objectives deriving from Law 97/2013 “On Audio and Audiovisual Media in the Republic of Albania”, for the Broadcasting Code and other regulations issued by AMA, for the improvement of the media landscape, organized today a conference on “Fake news and challenges for the truth in the media”.
Mrs. Monika Stafa, Chairperson of the Council of Complaint, at the opening of the event highlighted the purpose of discussing this topic. According to her, the development of technology, the digitalization of life has its dark side: getting rid of the profession of journalism and one of the consequences of this deformation is the phenomenon of fake news.
AMA Chairman Mr. Gentian Sala welcomed the conference and thanked the parties for the unremitting cooperation for the real news purpose. He emphasized the cooperation with media actors and generating role of AMA in this debate.
Mrs. Adelheid Feilcke, a renowned DW journalist (Deutche Welle), currently the head of the Department of European Languages at DW, brought the German experience in the battle against fake news. She showed that the fear of fake news during the election campaign in Germany was great, although it was found that there was no breakthrough. According to her, the manipulation of facts or opinion, especially by the media supposedly being observed by Russia, was considered as a possibility of instability.
Professor Mark Mark brought to attention the most common deformities of the news:
- at the social level: the media defined as the fourth power is becoming the instrument of other powers;
- at communication level: journalism as a subsystem is embedded in other communication systems such as PR, publicity or political marketing, etc;
- at professional plan: the independence and the freedom of practicing the journalist’s profession are violated.
AMA member and journalist profesor, Mr. Zylyftar Bregu sees fake news as a challenge for the truth in the media. Facebook or fakebook?! Social Network “Facebook” itself confirms that there are about 83 million false addresses, or fake profiles. This situation is a good bed to turn Facebook into a “Fake-book”.
For the professor of the Department of Journalism at UT, Mr. Ervin Goci, the bigest concern, more than the issue of respecting ethics in the media, was the general crisis in the media system, a crisis of confidence in the information as a whole.
Media expert Mr. Rrapo Zguri, focused on “seeing is believing” as well as problems related to the manipulation of the television image.
Part of the panel was also Mrs. Ilda Londo, from the Albanian Media Institute, a media expert, who drew attention to the “media literacy” alternative as a barrier to fake news. Media and information, according to Mrs. Londos are important in a democratic society, as they are supposed to give citizens the opportunity to participate in important decision-making, positively influencing their empowerment and contribution to society. Focusing on education policies in the country, Londo said we are still far from acceptable. She addressed criteria and concepts applied in the field of ‘media literacy’ in the world, assuming that this alternative is a strong weapon of recognition in the multitude of information that citizens face today.
For Mr. Lutfi Dervishi, another well-known media expert, the fake news story has a good side as well. It encourages thought to return to the basics of professional journalism. Dervishi, as well as other referrals, cited three ways to distinguish or avoid false information; the process of verifying the news in some sources, and controlling to produce the true news throughout this process.
Fake news has unfortunately managed to penetrate traditional media and social networks. The Audiovisual Media Authority and the AMA Council of Complaints are working in several directions with the aim of raising awareness among all parties about the news and importance of objective public information. This very interesting conference will be followed by a publication of all the papers that will be available to field specialists and to the general public.
Audiovisual Media Authority
Tirana, on 2 Octobre, 2017
