The Forum on Information and Democracy has co-signed the M20 Johannesburg Declaration, joining a global coalition of 49 media and civil society organisations in urging G20 leaders to place information integrity, media freedom and journalism sustainability at the heart of the international agenda.
The declaration is the result of two intensive days of deliberations at the M20 Summit in Johannesburg, the first of its kind and organised by Sanef and Media Monitoring Africa on the sidelines of the G20 programme in South Africa. It consolidates insights from several policy briefs, including the Forum on Information and Democracy’s policy brief, “Information integrity on climate change must be an integral pillar of the G20”, which highlights the urgent need to counter coordinated disinformation campaigns, AI-driven misinformation and threats to investigative journalism.
By presenting the declaration to the upcoming November G20 Heads of State Summit, the M20 aims to influence global decision-makers to embed media freedom and information integrity as structural priorities within the Summit’s priorities. The South African government has confirmed it will raise the topic, and the Forum has mobilised the network of the Partnership for Information and Democracy to amplify these recommendations across signatory states. The declaration also includes a call to the media providing concrete steps on how they can support information integrity.
The M20 Johannesburg Declaration lays out concrete, cross-cutting actions:
- reinforcing journalistic ethics,
- promoting pluralistic and reliable information ecosystems,
- safeguarding journalists’ safety,
- ensuring fair compensation for media content used by AI,
- and strengthening media viability against market pressures and platform dominance.
These measures are designed to protect societies from misinformation, support democratic governance, and ensure access to high-quality, trustworthy information on public-interest issues.Through this declaration, the Forum and its partners emphasise that independent journalism is a public good. With coordinated action, it can provide the foundation for informed public debate, evidence-based policy and sustainable development. The M20’s underscores the critical role of media in tackling today’s pressing global challenges and positions the G20 to act decisively.
