“ELECTION AND JOURNALISM DURING THE TIMES OF FAKE INFORMATION” DISCUSSION HELD

The MCM, Fredrich Ebert Stiftung, Globe International Center and Open Society Forum co-organized “Election and journalism during the times of fake information” discussion on May 1, 2019. The discussion was held under the theme of how media sector should act when so much information hard to tell true or false spread over online platforms, especially how journalists and media organizations should work when election approaches, how to check information whether it is true or not.

Within the sub-discussion topics of “Election and fake news”, “Media and fake news”, “Voters education and fake news”, it’s discussed journalism during the election period, social media regulations, monitoring on social media during the elections period.
Particularly,
•          Zehra Abid, researcher at Aga Khan University of Pakistan, presented about “Media and learnings from elections” and “Fake news in Pakistan and Southeast Asia”;
•          D.Enkhtsetseg, program manager at Open Society Forum, presented about “Election financing and fake news”;
•          Manfred Protze, Vice Chair of German Press Council, presented about “How fake news affect media and journalism?”; 
•          D.Bold-Erdene, Ph.D and Director of Social Science School, National University of Mongolia, presented about “Social media monitoring on presidential election in 2017”;
•          B.Purevsuren, lawyer at Globe International Center, presented about “Election regulations in online and social networks”; 
•          Ch.Munkh-Erdene, Executive Director at Mongolian Library Consortium, presented about “Media literacy and fake news”; 
•          Ts.Tamir, fact-checker at Mongolian Center for Investigative Reporters, presented about  “Identifying fake news”.

“Journalists should understand gap between PR and professional journalism. Publishing professional journalism products in a way of doing PR affects to lower quality of professional journalism. Checking truth of information is supposed to be main duty of journalists from the perspective of professionalism. Journalists shall remember that journalism ethics are vital part of their profession in every step” Manfred Protze emphasized.