Amid the World Press Freedom Day (3 May), Reporters Without Borders (RSF) launched the “#FightFakeNews” campaign which aims to warn of the dangers of fake news.
Reminding that combatting disinformation is now one of the biggest challenges for journalism’s defenders, the campaign rolled out with a TV spot entitled “FightFakeNews” that was produced for RSF by the French creative agency BETC and Director Caroline Grimpel.
The spot compares the harm to humans caused by counterfeit industrial or pharmaceutical products with the political harm resulting from counterfeit news and information.
Unlike the traditional type of fakes, whose impact on health or the environment is visible and measurable, “fake news” undermines the foundations of democracy in a more insidious way. Fake meddles into our lives. And when it comes to fake news, it’s not only our purses that are being manipulated, but our minds.
“Content that is produced in a rigorous and honest manner is increasingly being subjected to unfair competition from sponsored content, propaganda and rumour,” RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire said.
“As surveys have shown, fake news circulates more easily than trustworthy news because of a cognitive bias in human beings. We cannot remain passive in the face of this threat to the honesty of the public debate and, by extension, to democracy. RSF is taking concrete steps to promote journalistic freedom, independence and pluralism.”
