No News is Bad News - Paraguay media professionals, women, CSO stakeholders Context and Analysis The 1992 Constitution of Paraguay guarantees freedom of the press, freedom of expression, and people’s right to access information. However, in practice, Paraguayans are increasingly finding it hard to enjoy those rights. A growing concentration of media ownership, violence against journalists, and public policies that facilitate censorship are limiting the expression of a plurality of voices. Fake news has become a major challenge in Paraguay, and the 2018 presidential campaigns were marred with false information and the massive use of social media to disseminate it. All these factors are undermining the availability of truthful information in the public space and the quality of political debate in the country. As a result of the existing economic model in Paraguay, the ownership of large states is reflected directly in a monopoly also in the Media. Currently, merely three business groups (with interests in agribusiness) are owners of the largest quantity of television, radio, and press news media in the country. This gives them ample power to influence the public opinion and the design of public policy of the government itself. At the same time, it only allows a thin margin for the expression of the plurality of voices concerned with public affairs. Furthermore, despite the fact that the country is beneficiary to a demographic bonus (29% of the population is between 15 and 29 years old, 2 million people), the majority of the media is not concerned with producing content focused on this age group, overlooking their importance to the present and the future of the country. In this manner, civic space, a pillar of the democratic system, is weakened in its capacity to balance power. Currently, conventional media excludes diversity of voices. Therefore, there are fewer opportunities for citizens to have access to information that is diverse, truthful, responsible, balanced, and systematic. Particularly the information that involves people under 30. Also, the standards of public debate are lowered, and democracy is weakened, since it’s difficult to access systematic information in order to hold public entities to account or to propitiate civic organisation. Faced with these challenges, there is an eminently young population that has already been a protagonist for its claims of structural changes and that has the potential to generate the changes that the country needs. In the last presidential elections (2018), 500 thousand young people were qualified to vote for the first time. The productive, creative and change capacity is concentrated in this segment of the population and this project aims to reach this segment through the provision of accurate, challenging and relevant information. The growing number of people accessing the Internet does not necessarily mean that they are better informed. One of the reasons is the quality of the education system, rated by the World Economic Forum as one of the worst in the world. The PISA test shows that only 32.2% of students reach the minimum required in reading comprehension skills, well below the OECD average of 79.9%. This means that they can barely identify the main subject of a text or the intention of the author. Added to the problem is the enormous amount of misleading information circulating on social networks, these being the main channels through which people access news. There are also established prejudices and myths that lead to discrimination and inequality. Without skills to verify the reliability of the information they consume or to question beliefs, people run the risk of being manipulated and perpetuating situations of injustice. Power groups have also shown that they can assemble infrastructures of trolls and bots that proliferate social networks to attack, give more visibility to the contents of certain profiles and to disseminate false data or biased information. These accounts discredit the work of journalists or disseminate disinformation that affects the quality of public debate on key issues, such as a democratic parity law to increase the representation of women in Congress or a law to prevent sexual abuse of minors. On both occasions, congressmen rejected these bills with arguments similar to those disseminated by these accounts on social networks. These accounts are behind the agenda that promotes the retrogression of minority rights. Information on external funding environment: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs informs that international cooperation in Paraguay is "financial (reimbursable or not), technical, called Official Development Assistance (ODA), South-South or triangular cooperation, through bilateral agreements, or multilateral organisations, or can be decentralised and include other actors from civil society and the private sector, in addition to government agencies, but in any case it is transversal". The majority of international cooperation is aimed at programmes to combat poverty, technical development of productivity, education and health. There are few programs that support projects associated with the promotion of freedom of expression, civic technology and journalism. The concentration of mass media limits the expression of a plurality of voices. Currently, no more than three business groups own the largest amount of television, radio and print media in the country. This gives them broad power to influence public opinion and the design of government policies. In addition, with the incursion of the business group of former president Horacio Cartes, which today has about ten media outlets, a media capture phenomenon emerges. Cartes continues to practice politics and through its media promotes the agenda of authorities such as legislators, governors or mayors who are loyal to his leadership. One of the consequences of this reality is the discrediting of journalistic work and the growing distrust and devaluation of audiences towards the press. At the same time, the low level of education in the population increases the risk of media manipulation, to the benefit of the same power groups that legislate against the well-being of the majority. Halfway to digital equality: Audit yields mixed results from Paraguay: A national strategy to eliminate Internet violence against girls and women and implement policies to overcome barriers to Web access and use are some of the recommendations of a study by TEDIC. The Gender Digital Divide Audit Report Card is a tool developed by the World Wide Web Foundation - an organisation founded by the creator of the Web, Tim Berners-Lee - that evaluates and qualifies governments and companies in their efforts to reduce what is known as the gender digital divide. This is the first time it has been implemented in Paraguay. The country receives a global score of 50%, below Colombia, which has 60%, and above the Dominican Republic, with 44%.