EANA discusses disinformation during Berlin Conference (FOTO)

Bern, Schweiz (ots) -

The EANA (European Alliance of News Agencies) Spring Conference of
2019 took place in Berlin, between April 3rd and 4th, with the title
"Opportunities for news agencies from fighting disinformation". The
Conference was launched by special guest Commissioner Gunther
Oettinger, who spoke at the opening event about the importance that
mass-media has for democratic societies. The Commissioner also
stressed the added value that innovation has the potential of
bringing to every media project, and underlined the need societies
have for trustworthy news as the ones provided by news agencies.

Peter Kropsch, CEO of dpa and President of EANA, started the
conference day by discussing the future of EANA as seen by the EANA
Board. "EANA is the the organisation for exchange about scenarios and
strategies on the top level, aiming to guide our news agencies into a
meaningful and prosperous future", Peter Kropsch said, stressing the
need for understanding of the situative demands of the different
types of news agencies. The President of EANA advocated for the
"improvement of the visibility of EANA on the international parquet
and especially in the European institutions to strengthen its weight
in the international media community". Peter Kropsch also underlined
the importance EANA has for its members, among others through
providing support when a member in "under fire".

Alexandru Giboi, EANA Secretary General, spoke about the study of
national news agencies in Europe undertaken by the London School of
Economics and Political Sciences, in partnership with EANA. "One
common goal might be to publicly define news agencies as the most
trusted source of information in the media environment. Seeing news
agencies' General News Services as public goods can attract more
customers by building trust in the product itself through societal
and civic responsibility acceptance", said Alexandru Giboi. Also,
EANA's SG pointed out to the keywords for the future evolution of
news agencies, and of the media in general, as shown by the study:
Trust, Innovation, Diversification, Communication.

Christine Buhagiar (AFP Director for Europe) and Matthias Mahn
(Senior Vicepresident of dpa) discussed the importance of the new
Copyright Directive and showed how news agencies are mentioned within
the text of the new legislation, but also presented ways in which
news agencies can benefit from the new legal context in the future.
Also, EANA's efforts towards the passing of the new Directive were
presented. "(...) licenses are not transferable. Which basically
means that publishers won't be able to resell to Google or Facebook
this part of our work. (...) Our content is really worth money.",
said Christine Buhagiar.

The EANA Conference keynote speaker was Margaritis Schinas, the
Chief Spokesperson of the European Commission, who spoke about the
European Union's own fight against disinformation. "It is our goal to
secure free and fair European elections, through data protection,
transparency, cybersecurity, cooperation, but also with appropriate
sanctions guaranteeing that the rules are respected by all", the
Chief Spokesperson said. Schinas also announced the introduction of a
financial penalty for European parties/political foundations in case
of infringement of GDPR rules trying to influence elections.

Jenni Sargent, Managing Director of First Draft
(https://firstdraftnews.org/), said that "the European elections
present an urgent opportunity for newsrooms to work together and
demonstrate united standards of verification, balance, and
transparency, particularly when handling disinformation." According
to Jenni Sargent, "all journalists should know how to identify and
responsibly report the threats and coordinated tactics at play,
without risking further amplification of a falsehood or conspiracy."
But that particular mission is not easy, the Managing Director of
First Draft agrees. "This is a complicated challenge, but we also
know that working collaboratively can help. I welcomed the chance to
speak today about what might be possible if we apply our CrossCheck
collaborative methodology across borders, as part of an EU-wide
project." Jenni Sargent concluded.

Armela Krasniqi, CEO of ATA news agency in Albania, presented the
impact fake news has on the country. Krasniqi showed that there was a
"curious boom" of online publications in Albania: "over 700 news
websites were registered in the last 5 years in Albania, 82 of them
being portals without a known owner". The CEO of ATA also mentioned
the 2018 Tirana Conference of Fake News, which ended with a joint
statement from 13 European news agencies that agreed to strengthen
their efforts in fighting disinformation. Fear, social unrest, hate
speech and hate crimes, political uncertainties and the empowerment
of radical movements, were mentioned by Armela Krasniqi as effects
that disinformation campaigns have on societies.

The second part of the EANA Conference in Berlin had its focus
more on the business side of how news agencies tackle disinformation,
with moderator Jiri Majstr, CEO of CTK and member of the EANA Board
announcing the positive impact that fighting the phenomenon would
have on news agencies.

Phil Chetwynd, AFP Global News Director, mentioned accurate news
as being at the core of the news agencies business, when discussing
AFP's Fact Checking philosophy. "Misinformation is not going away.
It is important all newsrooms create a real verification culture.",
Phil Chetwynd said.

Stefan Voss, Verification Officer at dpa, showed the audience how
dpa's verification team works for fact-checking news. "It is very
important to decide how you use your resources of people and time
because not all news are meant to be fact-checked", said Stefan Voss.

Wojtek Surmacz, CEO of PAP, presented his opinion that the truth
is now like a puzzle, and it can be very difficult to grasp by the
public. "Today every internet user who wants to see the big picture
about Europe has to spend a lot of time on reading a lot of different
media outlets. But if we were to organize on platforms that allow the
media access to all European agencies in one place, then the media -
our clients, would have full access to unique information about
Europe in that one place", said the CEO of PAP.

Ural Yesil, International Operation Director at Anadolu Agency,
held a presentation about PTS - AA's Photo Tracking System. "Our
Photo Tracking System (PTS) is fully created by the staff of AA IT
Department for fighting disinformation, blocking manipulations and
dark propagandas," he said, adding that the advanced system enables
AA to track its own visual content by detecting where, when and how
they are used by the third parties.

Jan Bayer, President of News Media International at Axel Springer,
was the special guest to close the EANA Conference in Berlin. During
his speech, he mentioned that the success of media can not be
measured only in sales and clicks. "The media should be serving a
higher goal, and that is delivering reliable information", said
Bayer.

Pressekontakt:
EANA - The European Alliance of News Agencies
Alexandru Ion Giboi
Secretary general
alexgiboi@gmail.com
Bucharest, Romania

Original-Content von: European Alliance of News Agencies (EANA), übermittelt durch news aktuell