The English and Canadian Governments have organized a Global Conference on Media Freedom in London. It took place from 10 to 11 July 2019, in London. The organizers say that the event aims to defend press freedom and to increase measures against those actors who try to restrict the freedom of information. To reach that goal, the organizers propose changing the legislation to protect the press, to build greater confidence in the media, and to actively fight against disinformation. Many political leaders from around the world will attend the event, including members of Commonwealth governments, along with representatives of the media industry. The Conference is an important and relevant international event. The critical point about the meeting is that they have started to defend press freedom by banning Russian media brands that are not welcome in the host country media. The organizers have accused those Russian media of promoting disinformation and promoting fake news. The Russian embassy in the UK has already shown its surprise and concern.
The banned Russian firms are RT and Sputniknews, two international media outlets that broadcast and publish internationally in several languages. The two Russian media brands are the target of many governments and organizations because they tend to offer alternative points of view that clashes with the homogeneous information provided by their national media. Offering different points of view does not seem to be a positive thing for media freedom, according to the organizers Conference on Media Freedom. Organizers have inadvertently shown that for them offering an alternative point of view is going to be systematically considered as disinformation. During two days, conferences demanding media freedom had taken place. Those conferences defended the homogeneity of information as plural freedom of the press. Neither the organizers nor the assistants want media to make the audience to think differently to the narrative they broadcast. Censorship is hereon a tool operating in the name of press freedom. This incongruence could seem hypocrisy from the organizers, but they were ready to explain how this can fit together in a coherent argumentative line.
The British media regulator Ofcom had stated that RT does not follow the rules of impartiality required for the English media. The worries of the English regulatory body are focus mainly on the information offered on the Skripal case. The case, according to the English press, Russia tried to kill on English soil one of his former agents using a potent poison. RT defended an alternative view. There are other dissident countries in the eyes of the host countries, such as North Korea, Syria, and Venezuela. These countries were not invited to the event either. There is a synchronized political antagonism between the political positions of the organizing governments and the banned countries governments. This synchronism points out the salience that information has in democratic countries; dissident opinions are a risk. If a media firm is broadcasting or publishing information that can make nationals audiences hesitate about the information offered by their governments, this information will be label automatically as disinformation or fake news.
The event focused on seeking measures to avoid the spread of what they consider dissident information. The meeting was an apparent attempt to control the information provided by the media industry in host countries and abroad. An influential group of media experts will give lectures on why to silence dissident voices will be beneficial for press freedom, and the democratic free marketplace of ideas. Intending to achieve this fight against the non-approved information, the organizers had announced millions of investments to influence the media reports in Eastern Europe, and Central Asia. The organizers' governments seek to have a unique information line while pretending to defend media freedom as well as informed debates. Communication has always been a matter under control for political power; today, those defending free press will be using control measures to apply veiled censorship against external and dissident pieces of information
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