Global fight vs fake news urged

SINGAPORE – Governments, the news publishing industry, and netizens were urged here to wage an all-out battle against fake news which has proliferated the Internet.

“We need to confront a complex challenge in the news and information landscape – the prevalence and ease of the spread of misinformation, or deliberate online falseThe

hoods,” said Singapore's Minister of Communication and Information S. Iswaran during the opening of Publish Asia 2019 at the Novotel on Stevens here.

Iswaran said rising connectivity has given rise to a “climate change” in the realm of publishing and news.

Home Affairs and Law Minister K. Shanmugan said there is an erosion of trust in government and institutions and this has threatened the foundations of democracy worldwide.

“Growing inequality, broken political systems, a media aligned with partisan politics, and the spread of fake news on new media have deepened this crisis,” he added.

Iswaran said an important antidote to deliberate online falsehoods is quality journalism.

“In this era where we are inundated with news from various news sources, it should not be a race just to capture eyeballs,” he added.

“In fact, we need to uphold the ideals and high standards of the profession through credible news reporting,” Iswaran said.

He underscored the need for news organizations to curate more balanced content, encourage their team to upgrade their skills, and to remind their team that in the midst of delivering news, they should never compromise on accuracy and credibility.

Publish Asia 2019 gathered 300 publishers and editors from 30 news organizations all over the world.

World Editors Forum Asia Chapter was also launched during the forum.