UN Summit signals support for media and journalism

It certainly takes stamina to achieve anything in the highly complex and sometimes very bureaucratic UN system. And it helps to have strong allies: The Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD) coordinated a group of engaged organizations, including DW Akademie, to engage on behalf of media and journalism at the UN Summit for the Future. The historic event in New York was aimed at finding consensus on how to tackle the world's major problems.

On the 22nd September, delegates from more than 193 countries lined up outside the UN headquarters from 7am, leaving bins overflowing with paper coffee cups. Diplomats and politicians were joined by stakeholders from around the world: Youth representatives concerned about the impact of AI; human rights experts with shocking stories of digital violence against women; climate scientists warning of the threat of disinformation.

Once inside, tension grew as Russia made one last attempt to impede the process by asking for last-minute amendments. But the African Group took quick and clever action, asking the assembly to vote against considering these amendments. And the assembly followed this suggestion with a 143 to 7 majority.

As the next step in the protocol, the President of the General Assembly, Philemon Yang, declared the adoption of the "Pact for the Future" without any further discussion.

A short moment of silence. Then broad applause. 

After months of commenting and negotiations, the Pact of the Future, a high-level document that proposes concrete and tangible actions on themes like sustainable development, international peace and security, digital cooperation and global governance, had come into being. It includes two further high-level documents focused on specific topics, the Declaration on Future Generations and the Global Digital Compact.

A major success for the media development community 

For the media development and freedom of expression community — but also for media in general — the Pact for the Future documents are of huge importance: In addition to strong emphasis on human rights, the Pact contains commitments to the protection of journalists in armed conflict and highlights disinformation and hate speech as a threat to global peace and security. The Global Digital Compact, for its part, commits to promoting "diverse and resilient information ecosystems, including by strengthening independent and public media, and supporting journalists and media workers" (GDC, para 35 (b)). "This is a major achievement for us," states Mira Milosevic, director of GFMD.

Over the past decades, the UN system had not adequately included media and journalism in its goals and processes. Development cooperation was traditionally focused on state actors, industry, finance sector and civil society in general. "Now we see a concrete language supporting the media sector and information integrity," Milosevic stated.

Civil society representatives came from all parts of the world to engage in disucssions on sustainable development, human rights, and global governance.

Throughout the process over the past year towards the new Pact for the Future, the media development community has continued to step up its advocacy efforts and connected with civil society actors working in similar fields, including in digital governance. Since spring 2024, GFMD and its member organisations have published statements on the Pact of the Future and the Global Digital Compact, engaged with numerous diplomatic and civil society networks, and provided support to partners in their direct advocacy with UN member states. The GFMD network, which included a small team of DW Akademie's advocacy experts, built a strong action alliance and significant expertise with UN processes and advocacy opportunities, which will allow the network to continue pushing for a strong implementation after the summit itself.

Quinn McKew of the freedom of expression NGO Article 19 sees advancements in these joint advocacy efforts. "The UN is a very process-oriented organization. So it is important that we got our issues into these documents. There is a fundamental understanding now that citizen-generated data is of huge importance — so we have a foot in the door."

Ten years ago, McKew was among those who advocated, also in cooperation with GFMD, for the inclusion of a dedicated governance Goal 16 into the current Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), where at least the killings of journalists and access to information laws became indicators under Target 16.10. The Pact for the Future documents will now draw more and broader attention to the issues of media development, media freedom and information integrity in general.

The Summit process comes to an end but the advocacy work continues 

Ahead of the summit, UN entities organised several online consultations on both the Pact and the GDC, where civil society actors where explicitly encouraged to provide comments and submissions in a lengthy drafting process. However, these consultations were often at short notice, with civil society actors coming in last and therefore struggling to have their say. It was not clear how their recommendations were being considered, and there was no documentation of submissions received.

Anna Oosterlinck, Head of UN at Article 19, also sees problems with the content of the final texts. "As these documents had to be agreed by consensus based on intergovernmental negotiations, we have seen compromises across the board." She commends the human rights language at the beginning of the Global Digital Compact document where fundamental principles are stated, but notes that it is then watered down in the sections that follow. One example for this is the topic of AI governance. "We are missing the commitment to human rights throughout the whole life cycle of these technologies — from the pre-conceptualization to trade and transfer. This omission may have consequences for national and international legislation."

So it remains to be seen how UN member states will work with the commitments contained in the Pact of the Future documents. While not legally binding, the texts will be important points of reference for the future, including the post-2030 agenda. But one thing is certain: Civil society, including the media development community, will continue pushing for strong protections for media and journalism, the promotion of diverse media ecosystems and digital rights. Because, as UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres highlighted in his message for World Press Freedom Day, "a free press is not a choice, but a necessity."