page_title: Media independence
section_title: Private sector
hierarchical_section_title: Media independence / Regulation / Self-regulation / Private sector
caption_attribution_description: English: Ranking Digital Rights indicator scores for policy transparency in regards to third-party requests for content or account restriction, UNESCO's World Trends Report
context_page_description: Media independence is the absence of external control and influence on an institution or individual working in the media. It is a measure of one's capacity to "make decisions and act according to its own logic," and distinguishes independent media from state media.
  The concept of media independence has often been contested as a normative principle in media policy and journalism. Nick Couldry considers that digital transformations tend to compromise the press as a common good by the technological, political and social dynamics that it brings. For this reason, authors such as Daniel Hallin, Kelly McBride, and Tom Rosenstiel consider other norms to be more relevant. Karppinen and Moe state that "what we talk about when we talk about media independence, then, are the characteristics of the relations between, on the one side, specific entities ranging from media institutions, via journalistic cultures, to individual speakers, and, on the other, their social environment, including the state, political interest groups, the market or the mainstream culture."
context_section_description: Public pressure on technology giants has motivated the development of new strategies aimed not only at identifying ‘fake news’, but also at eliminating some of the structural causes of their emergence and proliferation. Facebook has created new buttons for users to report content they believe is false, following previous strategies aimed at countering hate speech and harassment online. These changes reflect broader transformations occurring among tech giants to increase their transparency. As indicated by the Ranking Digital Rights Corporate Accountability Index, most large internet companies have reportedly become relatively more forthcoming in terms of their policies about transparency in regard to third party requests to remove or access content, especially in the case of requests from governments. At the same time, however, the study signaled a number of companies that have become more opaque when it comes to disclosing how they enforce their own terms of service, in restricting certain types of content and account.
caption: Ranking Digital Rights indicator scores for policy transparency in regards to third-party requests for content or account restriction
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