ROME (ITALPRESS) – The challenges of the advertising business to ensure fair information, the need for a European network to ensure media governance against foreign interference, protection of sources and legislation to fight intimidation methods including through the law: these are the topics at the center of the “States General of Information as seen from Rome,” the meeting that brought together journalists and media representatives at Palazzo Farnese to discuss the report published in France in the fall of 2024, entitled “Protecting and developing the right to information: an emergency for democracy.”
“Today, the public space of our societies is traversed by phenomena that threaten to weaken the essential role of information as a public good and a pillar of democratic resilience: among these, artificial intelligence is undoubtedly one of the most disruptive innovations, capable of radically transforming the production and fruition of information: in recognizing and valuing its potential, we cannot ignore its criticalities. The growing role of algorithms in the segmentation of the information space and the risk of their misuse, not only by users of Italian platforms, but also by actors with targeted and not always transparent interests,” recalled the French ambassador to Italy, Martin Briens.
For the undersecretary to the Prime Minister’s Office with responsibility for information and publishing, Alberto Barachini, “ethics, responsibility and, of course, rules are needed: there is a need for equal conditions for Italian and European publishing realities, otherwise you cannot be competitive and you cannot stay in the market. We will probably need a new rule on publishing mergers that takes into account the advertising impact they have, because the world has changed and the rules must change: even the most recent European measures will need updating,” he stressed.
“I believe the battle can be won, but we must overcome timidity and reticence of the past, because the enemies are different: the information system is now not just Italian, it is European, and the risks and enemies are elsewhere,” the undersecretary concluded.
Agcom President Giacomo Lasorella also stressed that “European legislation is increasingly an open yard, because it is based on a transactional logic with the platforms: you have to see what they do, analyze it, see, sanction, open proceedings. Certainly it is all quite complex, but the work that is being done at the European level is extraordinary. For example, in Europe they have issued guidelines for electoral processes a kind of par condicio in web version, which worked quite well in the last elections in Germany.”
-Photo photo xi2/Italpress-.
(ITALPRESS).
