Principles on Information & Democracy

Through this Partnership, signatory States affirm the following principles:

• The global information and communication space, which is a shared public good of significant democratic value, must support the exercise of human rights, most notably the right to freedom of opinion and expression, including the freedom to seek, receive and impart information and ideas of all kinds, through any media of one’s choice regardless of frontiers, in accordance with the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (Article 19).
• Access to reliable information must be protected and promoted to enable democratic participation and the exercise of freedom of opinion and expression.
• Information can be regarded as reliable insofar as its collection, processing and dissemination are free and independent, based on cross-checking of various sources, in a pluralistic media landscape where the facts can give rise to a diversity of interpretation and viewpoints.
• In accordance with the international law and standards on the right to freedom of opinion and expression, journalists and media workers, in the course of their function, must be protected against all forms of violence, threats, and discrimination; against all forms of arbitrary detention, abusive legal proceedings; against any unduly restrictive efforts to prevent them from carrying out their works and have access to appropriate legal remedies, including as relevant with respect to the confidentiality of their sources.
• Sustainable business models must be developed to serve high-quality independent journalism.

Signatory States also call on the online service providers that structure global information and communication space to more accountability, transparency and neutrality. 

Published in November 2018, the Declaration: 

• Justifies the needed obligations imposed on the entities that shape this “common good of humankind”.
• Affirms the link between freedom of opinion and factual truths. 
• Enshrines the right to reliable information as a constituent of the right to freedom of opinion.
• Requires the promotion of “reliable information”.
• Requires the promotion of pluralism and serendipity in the algorithmic curation.
• Justifies the transparency requirements to which entities that shape the globalized space should abide.
• Enshrines the principle of individual responsibility of participants in the public debate.
• Enshrines the social function of journalism as “trusted third party”.
• Affirms that the function of journalism within societies strengthens the protection and independence of journalists.
• Calls for the creation of an international group of information experts.