Press release
Launch of public consultation on National Counter Disinformation Strategy
From Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
Published on
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From Department of Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media
Published on
Last updated on
The Minister for Tourism, Culture, Arts, Gaeltacht, Sport and Media, Catherine Martin, today welcomed the launch of a public consultation on the development of a National Counter Disinformation Strategy. Full details and the consultation questionnaire are available, and the consultation remains open for submissions until 5pm on Friday 20 October.
As part of their report, the Future of Media Commission recognised the need for more coordinated and strategic action to combat the damaging impact of disinformation on Irish society and democracy. Therefore, they recommended the development of a National Counter Disinformation Strategy.
In February 2023, the department established a multi-stakeholder working group to develop the Strategy. It aims to coordinate sectoral efforts to combat disinformation and provide a joined-up approach to reduce the creation and spread of false and harmful material.
The Working Group has produced a Scoping Paper which sets out a summary of a range of issues that are relevant to disinformation. It also sets out five draft principles around which a strategy could be developed. The public consultation asks people for their views on those principles and for their ideas for actions that would help make them a reality.
Welcoming the launch of the public consultation, the Minister said:
"Disinformation is a complex issue. That is why we established this multi-stakeholder working group to bring representatives from industry, academia, civil society and government departments together to develop a Strategy which would help coordinate all the efforts being made to counter disinformation.
"An important part of the work is to seek the views of the public, and that is the aim of this public consultation. I would encourage people to review the Scoping Paper, which seeks to set out a summary of the main issues and the five draft principles, and submit their views."
The consultation is open online today, 25 September, for four weeks until 5pm on Friday 20 October.
Once the consultation process has concluded, the Working Group will review the outputs and continue its work on developing the Strategy. The next stage of the consultation will then be a consultative forum for stakeholders to discuss the outputs from the consultation. It is hoped to finalise a strategy as soon as possible thereafter.
The Working Group has been meeting regularly since February. Minutes of each meeting, along with presentations and the work of three subgroups tasked with exploring the terms of reference in detail, are available.
The five key principles for the strategy are set out below:
The members of the Working Group are: