Now Journalist are Encouraged. We see many agencies (e.g. UNESCO) are now encouraging journalists to use Facebook to their advantage, to practice freedom of speech e.g. Unesco (United Nation Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization) acknowledges the use of social media for freedom of speech-funding provided to encourage journalists to use social media for freedom of speech.
(UNESCO, Freedom of Expression on Internet and Social media.’ Action Line C9 Media UNESCO and WSIS, Forum 2012)
The fact that social media is internationally endorsed by many leading countries as expressed by UNESCO is another fact to support that social media enables the practice of freedom of speech. World authorities endorses social media for freedom of speech International efforts to promote freedom of expression and independent media. Many organizations (UNESCO for example) encourage the development of literacy to equip the user to engage in freedom of speech on social media. For the seventh year UNESCO convened a facilitation meeting on WSIS Action Line C9 Media at WSIS Forum 2012 in Geneva on 14 May 2012.
This year the meeting focused on promoting freedom of expression on Internet and Social media and UNESCO took the opportunity to promote its Internet freedom publication (UNESCO, “Freedom of Expression on Internet and Social Media.” the Changing Legal and Regulatory.” WSIS FORUM 2012)
Panelists and participants recognized that freedom of expression on Internet is a crucial challenge to address in formulating inclusive information society. Panelists from Council of Europe, Electronic Frontier Foundation and Association of Progressive Communication presented various challenges and threats (example countries that monitor the internet) for freedom of expression on Internet and shared recently developed international and regional standards and policy recommendations on protecting Internet freedom.
(UNESCO, Freedom of Expression on Internet and Social media.’ Action Line C9 Media UNESCO and WSIS, Forum 2012)
One of the hallmarks of social networks is user-generated content. Many organizations encourage users of their online community, Facebook page, or Twitter account to engage and communicate freely. However, rules are important to protect abuse of the rights of others such as copyrights, trademarks etc. Just because you’re not the government doesn’t mean looking the other way when a user is clearly engaging in prohibited or restricted speech. While there could be unhappy users, a clear policy will establish that all online speech is not created equal. (Sarah F. Hawkins. “How Free Speech and Social Media Fit Together” Social Media Examiner, 2012). This of course facilitates user-generated materials.
Some will argue that social media promotes abuse more than it does for the expression of freedom of speech. And, this might happen too, but social media have created rules to lessen the practice of abuse. The user can be prohibited from using the platform or be suspended for some time. This encourages people to stick to the real issues. By having such rules, freedom of speech is more guaranteed. Tools on social media: allow for the practice of freedom of speech via social media- more than one account, hidden identity, delete, upload, pics, videos, etc. UNESCO has committed itself to enabling a free, open and accessible Internet space as part of promoting comprehensive Freedom of Expression online.
Several reasons presented suggest that social media facilitates freedom of speech. It has brought about a decrease of barriers that blocked freedom of speech because of its addition to conventional media tools. It has enabled more opportunities because of its fee accounts and the fact that each person has an account. It helps to eliminate biases because it provides more accuracy through videos and back and forth interaction. Finally, there is a lot of motivation to use it for freedom of speech because it has tools to enable back and forth communication and it educates the user on how to use it, and it has rules to protect the user from abuse. Yet, another motivation is that world authorities support and encourage its use.
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