Summary
Media and information literacy education should be promoted to enable individuals to access, understand, and critically analyze information, including online.
Obligations
Election Parts
Issues
Criteria
- Voter education efforts included information about all electoral rights, including equal suffrage, the right to vote and be elected, the right to an effective remedy, and the secret ballot
- Civil society organizations participated in voter education
- The state took the steps necessary to give effect to rights during voter education
- Voters were able to form opinions independently, on the basis of information from a plurality of sources and free from any manipulative interference
Quotes
- States should introduce legislative provisions, or strengthen existing ones, that promote media literacy with a view to enabling individuals to access, understand, critically analyse, evaluate, use and create content through a range of legacy and digital (including social) media.
- The Human Rights Council, (…) 4. Affirms that quality education plays a decisive role in development, and therefore calls upon all States to promote digital literacy (…).
- Concerning more specifically the risks posed by disinformation and undue propaganda on the internet and social media for the smooth conduct of the electoral process, the Assembly calls on member States to: (…) 9.6. encourage all stakeholders – including internet intermediaries, media outlets, civil society and academia – to develop participatory initiatives to enable the general public to have a better understanding of the danger of disinformation and undue propaganda on the internet, and to seek together appropriate responses to these phenomena.
- In addition, member States should: (...) – promote media literacy with regard to the functioning of search engines, in particular on the processes of selecting, ranking and prioritising of search results and on the implications of the use of search engines on users’ right to private life and the protection of their personal data.
- The Committee of Ministers, under the terms of Article 15.b of the Statute of the Council of Europe, recommends that member States, in consultation with private sector actors and civil society, develop and promote coherent strategies to protect and promote respect for human rights with regard to social networking services, in line with the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms (...), in particular by engaging with social networking providers to carry out the following actions: (...) − raise users’ awareness, by means of clear and understandable language, of the possible challenges to their human rights and the ways to avoid having a negative impact on other people’s rights when using these services.
- In view of the foregoing, the Committee of Ministers: (…) - encourages member States to assume their responsibility to address this threat by (…) e) empowering users by promoting critical digital literacy skills and robustly enhancing public awareness of how many data are generated and processed by personal devices, networks, and platforms through algorithmic processes that are trained for data exploitation. Specifically, public awareness should be enhanced of the fact that algorithmic tools are widely used for commercial purposes and, increasingly, for political reasons, as well as for ambitions of anti- or undemocratic power gain, warfare, or to inflict direct harm.
- In order to redeem its promise of fostering a culture of informed public debate and active participation in the democratic process, it is of the utmost importance that individuals are empowered to understand this environment and its challenges. (…) To this end, individuals need to develop a wide range of skills for media and information use and an awareness of their rights and responsibilities in relation to the use of digital tools and technologies.
- In addition, support for initiatives promoting media and information literacy skills for accessing and managing the digital space is essential.
- The State provides media and digital literacy programmes for users to foster their ability to make informed decisions and to respect the rights and freedoms of others.
- States should also promote digital literacy in the use of the Internet and ICT for all, without sex- or gender-based discrimination, and promote gender equality at all levels of education, including online education, from early childhood onwards.
- Support programmes, projects and activities on media and information literacy, including digital or technological literacy, that encourage people’s critical thinking and critical competencies and promote, among other things (...): 77.1 Competencies to search for, critically evaluate, use and contribute information and media content wisely.
- States should make a concerted effort to promote digital media and information literacy, including in relation to elections.
- Devote significantly greater attention and resources to media-, information- and digital literacy, over the short- and long-term, to address the particular literacy challenges of the modern digital communications environment.
- The Commission encourages Member States to mobilise resources and include in their educational policies digital citizenship, media literacy, the development of critical-thinking skills for the online environment, and awareness-raising activities on disinformation and online amplification techniques.
- Media information and digital literacy empowers people and builds their resilience against disinformation and misinformation, as noted recently by the General Assembly.