Should protecting the press be a priority for the G20? These global editors think so.
Source: Reuters Institute
-A dozen media managers discuss challenges facing journalism at a global media summit convened by Indian editor Siddharth Varadarajan
Foto: Journalists protest against the arrest of journalists for their posts on social media in New Delhi in 2019. REUTERS/Anushree Fadnavis
by Marina Adami
Leading editors from around the world met earlier this week to discuss common challenges faced by the news media as well as possible solutions in a digital meeting hosted by Indian journalists mirroring the G20 New Delhi summit taking place this week.
The event, the M20 or the Media 20 Online Summit, was held on Wednesday and was an initiative by Indian media organisations who are concerned about the dangerous decline of press freedom in their country and beyond.
The meeting was convened by Indian journalist and editor Siddharth Varadarajan, who founded digital-born newspaper The Wire in 2015 along with Sidharth Bhatia and M. K. Venu. Varadarajan gave the 2019 Reuters Memorial Lecture, in which he spoke about the future of journalism in his home country.
Also present were high-profile editors from Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Indonesia, Italy, South Africa, the UK and the US.
Introducing the session, Varadarajan pointed out that the issue of press freedom is not a priority for discussion at G20 meetings. “None of the problems that they [the G20] hope to solve can be solved if the media in their country is not free,” he said. Varadarajan concluded his opening remarks by expressing hope that the M20 initiative can continue to shadow future G20 summits, like the next one in Brazil.
Participants then began to share their views about the challenges the press faces in their own countries and any possible solutions to them.
