Digital Global Media Forum

The Internet—danger or boon for autocrats?

The Internet can be used as a tool of oppression. But it can also be a platform for critical voices. Journalists Maria Ressa from the Philippines and Lina Attalah from Egypt and Amnesty International’s Markus N. Beeko discussed the importance of the Internet in autocratic states in a digital session of this year’s Global Media Forum.

Social media as a weapon

According to Ressa, global societies are witnessing the “death of democracy by a thousand cuts.” She stresses that the Internet, in particular social media, has contributed to this process in the Philippines in recent years: “The government uses social media as a weapon by flooding it with so much information and so much hate that at some point people no longer know what is true,” she explains.

Despite legal and physical attacks against critical journalists, it is still possible to talk of media diversity in the Philippines, whereas in Egypt, extensive criminal prosecutions and censorship have had a seriously diluting effect on the media. “The only media that escape censorship are those that are either state-owned or have sworn allegiance to the state in one way or another,” says Attalah, describing the situation in the North African country. Independent media organizations, on the other hand, are barely able to do their job anymore; Mada Masr has had to adopt “alternative publication methods” because their website has been blocked.

For Beeko, what is happening in Egypt and the Philippines and other countries like China or Russia, in terms of state influence online reflects what is happening in the analogue world: “Repression is increasing. Human rights are under attack, press freedom is under attack, activists and lawyers are under attack.”

Social media as an alternative meeting place

At the same time, however, the Internet remains an important platform for many people to become informed, to exchange and to engage with each other—especially where real spaces for exchange no longer exist, says Beeko. So, in the hands of some, the Internet can be the ultimate tool of oppression, while for others it is an indispensable means of liberation.

Attalah and Ressa want to see a change in the way social media operates so that it does not lead to polarization, but to better information and understanding. “We will continue to do our best, because I believe we do make a difference. That’s our way of fighting back: more journalism,” Ressa concludes.

Watch the full session on dw.com/gmf

The Global Media Forum 2020 receives support from the Federal Foreign Office, the German state of North Rhine-Westphalia, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and the Foundation for International Dialogue of the Savings Bank in Bonn.

Maria Ressa

© Gianluca Costantini

is a co-founder and editor-in-chief of the news website Rappler in the Philippines. She is under immense pressure because of Rappler’s critical coverage of the government, particularly on President Rodrigo Duterte’s declared “war on drugs.” Ressa has already been arrested many times and recently received a libel conviction. Her sentence is still pending.

Lina Attalah

© Gianluca Costantini

is the founder and chief editor of the online newspaper Mada Masr—one of the remaining independent media outlets in Egypt—and which has been banned for the past three years by President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s government. Egyptian authorities have taken action against Mada Masr on several occasions: the newspaper was raided last November and Attalah was briefly arrested in May.

Markus N. Beeko

is the secretary general of Amnesty International in Germany. He is also the chair of Amnesty’s international steering group on “Human Rights in the Digital Age.” Appointed to head the German section in 2016, he has been active in leadership positions for Amnesty in Germany and the international secretariat in London since 2004. by Ines Eisele, DW editor

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Digital Global Media Forum tackles role of media in COVID-19 reporting

With large-scale events being placed on hold around the globe due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the DW Global Media Forum (GMF) also takes its conference online this year.

by Sertan Sanderson, DW editor

© DW

For the past 12 years, the Global Media Forum has brought together more than 2,000 participants from over 120 countries. This year, GMF is hosting a series of online debates to discuss pressing issues in contemporary journalism within the framework of its 2020 topic “Pluralism. Populism. Journalism.”

The first session kicked off on June 24, with a discussion on the media’s role in the ongoing public health crisis. The live-streamed debate “The blame game: What is the media’s responsibility in the corona crisis?” featured three guests from around the globe: John-Allan Namu, CEO of investigative Kenyan news platform, Africa Uncensored; Maria Esperanza Casullo, a political scientist and Associate Professor at the National University in Rio Negro, Argentina; and Guido Bülow, Head of News Partnerships Central Europe at Facebook.

Focusing on the trustworthiness of news sources, particularly in the digital realm, Casullo stressed the importance of local journalism within this context, stating that many people were struggling to identify brands they could trust amid a “deluge of information” on the novel coronavirus. “It’s hard to filter what is reliable and trustworthy and what is not. I’m finding during these months that local, provincial or even city newspapers are more reliable than national media because they actually do have reporters on the ground and they have more factual figures and information,” said Casullo.

Bülow stated that Facebook had introduced a dedicated COVID-19 information center with the help of the World Health Organization (WHO). “In order to combat misinformation, we are working together with more than 70 fact-checkers around the world,” Bülow said. These include major global news agencies.

According to Namu, the current situation could strengthen media in the long-term. He underscores the need for balanced reporting, especially in regions that do not have access to a broad range of independent news, and where smaller outlets provide the majority of news: “We can’t do it all online. Internet penetration is not as high as was recently thought, and COVID-19 has exposed this,” he said. Despite the many challenges posed by the global pandemic, the panelists are hopeful that journalists could learn from the crisis in the long term.