Des Freedman Professor of Media and Communication Studies at Goldsmiths, University of London

Biogram:
Des Freedman is Professor Media and Communications at Goldsmiths, University of London. He is the author of The Contradictions of Media Powerand The Politics of Media Policyand co-author (with James Curran and Natalie Fenton) of Misunderstanding the Internet. He has edited a number of volumes on broadcasting, media reform, liberalism, terrorism and the politics of higher education and was one of the founders of the Media Reform Coalition.

Keynote speech: The Resistable Rise of Media Power
Deregulation, marketization, hypercommercialization, corporate capture and commodification are component features of a neoliberalism that has destabilized media landscapes and eviscerated public communication. Embedded forms of inequality that shaped legacy media have been intensified in a digital environment in which algorithms and big data are fetishized and financialized. Power has been increasingly consolidated by oligopolistic digital intermediaries like Facebook and Google while the state has, all too often, corrupted public media which, far from scrutinising elites, are more likely to articulate their interests. This talk identifies the abuses of an evolving media power that is seen to be the source of some of the key problems we face today – a crisis of disinformation, a collapse of the ‘centre ground’ and declining levels of trust – and argues that media reform has to be a central part of contemporary democratic movements.

Karen Donders Professor at the Faculty of Economic and Social Science, Vrije Universiteit Brussel.

Biogram:
She is the head of SMIT’s smart media unit, supervising business, policy and researchers on media mediated communication.

Keynote speech: Public service media in Europe: The mismatch between theory, the law and practice
Public service media concerns the provision of services by public broadcasters that contribute to the democratic, cultural and social wellbeing of society and this across devices and various technologies. Citizens are primarily being addressed as citizens and the institutions in charge should operate as independently as possible from market forces and government control. That is, summarizing and simplifying to a large extent, the theory underling one of the most studied concepts and institutions in Europe. But is theory corresponding with reality? Karen Donders researched the state of play of public service media across Europe, critically confronting the theory, the law and practice. She carried out case studies on Belgium, Ireland, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and several other countries. She will present the main findings of her new book on this topic.

Xianhong Hu Program Specialist at Division of Freedom of Expression and Media Development, UNESCO

Biogram:
Dr Xianhong Hu is UNESCO’s program specialist at the Division of Freedom of Expression and Media Development. Her main responsibilities are in the areas of freedom of expression online and offline, Internet privacy, media development and Internet governance. She has also conducted UNESCO Series Publication on investigative journalism including “Story-Based Enquiry: A Training Manual for Investigative Journalism” and “Global Casebook of Investigative Journalism”.

Open lecture:: To Assess Internet Policies in your country: UNESCO presentation of Internet Universality ROAM-X Indicators
Have you ever wanted to gain a deeper understanding of your digital environment? To have a map of the Internet measuring its compliance with Rights, Openness and Accessibility, and assessing Multistakeholder involvement in its governance? If so, UNESCO’s ROAM-X Indicators are for you. As developed via a two-year global multi-stakeholder consultation process including with European community, the tool is a unique resource to make a diagnosis of national digital environments and address structural inequalities. It aims to:

• - Present a comprehensive and substantive understanding of the national Internet environment and policies;
• - Assess alignment of the environment and policies to UNESCO’s R.O.A.M. principles and their contribution to sustainable development;
• - Develop policy recommendations and practical initiatives that will enable the country to improve their Internet ecosystem as advanced ICTs evolve.

UNESCO will take the opportunity to launch the new publication “UNESCO’s Internet Universality Indicators: A Framework for Assessing Internet Development” and the related implementation process at national levels across all continents including Europe. The publication includes the implementation guide is available online in English, French, Spanish and Portuguese, with hard copies for distribution. UNESCO will encourage synergies among the multi-stakeholder community (including governments, civil society, the private sector, technical community academia, the journalism community) to support national assessments of Internet development using the indicators. It is hoped that the session will foster partnerships to conduct national assessments in more countries and trigger policy debates for bridging the digital gap and improving Internet development at national and global levels.