RSF appeals for action on hate speech

The Secretary General of Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Christophe Deloire, has appealed for media organisations to help safeguard media freedom and counter the spread of hate speech.

In a video message to the Global News Forum, Mr Deloire said there were almost 500 journalists in jail around the world, because of their job.

“Unfortunately, the World Press Freedom map remains really dark,” he said.

“Clearly, the current competitive environment gives a competitive advantage to hate speech, to rumours, to corrupted content, to sponsored content etcetera. We have to give the competitive advantage in the content market to journalism.”

RSF has offices in 40 cities around the world, correspondents in 130 countries, and responds to threats to journalists and journalism.

Mr Deloire said the architecture and laws of information and communication in the public arena should be determined by democratic institutions, not private companies.

“We have to find ways so that democracies can work together to have democratic institutions establish the laws of this space, instead of private companies. That’s why we launched the Forum of Public Information and Democracy.”