TIRANA, July 23/ATA/ – I think that controlling the media environment and using the media is probably yesterday’s story. Young people would go to other means like the social media, stated the president of the well-known British news agency Press Association Clive Marshall at the Global Media Forum which is taking place in Shusha, the cultural capital of Azerbaijan.
“And I think there are great examples of countries like Albania, Bulgaria, Rumania”, said Marshall.
“And to think of their history. The media environment is very open and there are high scores in the international evaluations”, he emphasized.
“And I think they have aspirations. There is the impact of social media. They must be confident in being free and do the job professionally, independently and impartially”, stated Marshall in the panel on “Investment and Consumer Trends in Media”.
“If you’re teaching, your students are dealing with people who challenge everything, and over time they’ll begin to understand whether what they’re reading from a certain source is true or not. We have to go back to the basics of good journalism and good journalists check their stuff”, he added while speaking about fact-checking in the media.
“They check the news from two or three sources while there is a technology that can help them understand whether the picture or that video was taken in that particular part of the world or in another part of it,” said Marshall.
“We must be very careful how we will protect those facts through their control”, he added.
“So, I think that with the public media in particular, given the funding that often comes from governments, there should be a separation from the goals of the governments and the way of separation of how the public media behaves. Because I think that young people are smart and understand the propaganda”, said Marshall.
“So, I think that as countries develop and grow, they need to trust their public media to allow them to do their job, being impartial, intelligent and objective,” concluded Press Association CEO Clive Marshall./a.jor. /p.s./
