Noticias
April, 2024.-On May 4, the University of Chile and the Pontifical Catholic University will host the meeting “Safeguarding press freedom in the midst of journalistic insecurity: Perspectives from the academic world”, one of Unesco’s activities to commemorate World Press Freedom Day 2024, the year in which Chile was chosen as the host country.
The event, for which registration is open, has several panels and presentations that will address issues such as violence experienced by journalists in the exercise of their profession around the world, the challenges of countering disinformation in times of AI or the challenges and opportunities of environmental communication, among others.
Ximena Póo, an academic from the University of Chile, who together with Claudia Lagos is part of the organizing committee, assures that “freedom of the press and freedom of expression is fundamental to sustain democracies and the right to communication as an axis of social cohesion, trust and actions to promote the construction of societies that develop policies and practices that strengthen equity, social justice, the fight against corruption, that promote interculturality and other values, while fighting against the scourges that violate citizens’ rights”.
In this line, the panel “Press freedom, media literacy and audiences: challenges and convergences in Europe and Latin America”, with the participation of Juan Carlos Suárez-Villegas, from the University of Seville, Spain; Fernando Oliveira Paulino, from the University of Brasilia, Brazil; Alejandra Phillippi Miranda, from the University of Santiago de Chile; Constanza Hormazábal Durand, from the University UNIACC, Chile; and Carolina Rodríguez Malebrán, from the University of La Serena, Chile.
Disinformation will also be a topic to be discussed during this day, including the talks “Journalistic Training: How to increase security in times of disinformation and artificial intelligence” and “Countering Disinformation: Recommendations from Multilaterality”.
The digital environment, global journalism and fake news
Other high points will be the presentations “Digital environment and disinformation in a polarized Chile. A qualitative approach”, given by María Isabel Pávez, Universidad de Los Andes; Magdalena Saldaña, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile; Cristian Cabalin, Universidad de Chile; and Andrés Scherman, Universidad Adolfo Ibáñez or “‘El Mercurio lies’… and so do all the others. Apuntes para recobrar la confianza de las audiencias”, by Claudia Lagos, Universidad de Chile, and Daniela Lazcano, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso.
Meanwhile, the IMFD researcher and Director of Research and Creation of the Communications Faculty of the Catholic University, Sebastián Valenzuela, will present the Keynote on the challenges in the area of academic research on the current information context, in the first plenary session, at the opening of the Academic Conference.
But not only journalists from Chile and Latin America will be present at this event to talk about Global Journalism in Precarious Times: Changes and Opportunities. Daniela Dimitrova, from Iowa State University, United States; Manuel Alejandro Guerrero, from Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico; Denis Wu, from Boston University, United States; Vera Slavtcheva-Petkova, from University of Liverpool, England; Tomas Dodds, from Leiden University, Netherlands; and Claudia Mellado, from Pontificia Universidad Católica de Valparaíso, Chile, will also participate as speakers.
Individual papers, in addition, include “The Victims’ Lens on the Dark Side of Online Hate Speech,” featuring Carol Azungi Dralega and Torborg Igland, both from NLA University College, Norway; and the panel “War, Political Scandals and Fake News: Threats to journalism and press freedom around the world,” which will feature Thomas Birkner, Paris Lodron University of Salzburg, Austria; Dariya Orlova, National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, Ukraine; Magdalena Saldaña, Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile; and Aysha Agbarya, Open University, Israel.
Panels and presentations will be held in the morning at the Pontificia Universidad Católica and from 1:00 p.m. at the Casa Central of the Universidad de Chile.
Registrations for this academic conference are free of charge at this link.
The current global environmental crisis
In conjunction with the academic conference on May 4, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) will hold various activities as part of the 31st World Press Freedom Day Conference, entitled “Press for the Planet: Journalism in the Face of the Environmental Crisis”. The event will address the important role that the press plays in accessing and disseminating information to guarantee and ensure a sustainable future that respects the rights of people and their diversity of voices.
The activities will begin on May 2 with the presentation by Unesco of the Guillermo Cano Press Freedom Award. Then, the agenda continues on May 3 with the inauguration of the conference, which will have welcoming remarks by the President of the Republic, Gabriel Boric, the Director General of Unesco, Audrey Azoulay, and the inaugural speech by former President Michelle Bachelet.
This conference will feature three plenary sessions and 15 parallel sessions, where topics such as: building a sustainable future with freedom of expression; old and emerging challenges; governance and decision making; Santiago + 30 Where are we now? and freedom of expression in Latin America will be discussed.
Source: Noticias Universidad de Chile
