The relentless spread of spurious and untrue information and fake news may cause far-reaching economic, political and social damage globally. We all have a shared interest and responsibility to prevent this damage.

Equal-opportunity access to infocommunication goods (both technology and content) is a fundamental demand in the society of today, but this demand also imposes responsibilities on producers as well as consumers.

Since the current public events are taking place in a fierce and heated communications atmosphere and will continue to do so in the future, we all greatly need wisdom and understanding when we consume media content, especially news.

It is the obligation of content producers and providers to disclose reliable and credible information from transparent sources in a lawful and ethical manner, keeping in mind the interests of readers, viewers and listeners granted to them by the Constitution. It is mandatory to separate fact from opinion; wise judgement is required when drawing conclusions; events and opinions in the public interest must be disclosed and public life must be presented in a balanced way. The law requires media service providers not to give space to inflammatory, hatred-inciting and exclusionist content whenever they share information or state opinions.

It is the opportunity and the responsibility of individual media content consumers to receive analytically and critically the content they read or see, to find information in a wide range of diverse sources and to carefully judge any content before sharing and disseminating it further.

Monika Karas