Ioana Avãdani: Less regulation, more self-regulation
Ioana Avãdani, director of the Bucharest-based Center for Independent Journalism (CJI), representing the South East European Network for the Professionalization of the Media (SEENPM), was a panelist at the Reykjavik Council of Europe conference on media and new communications. She called for less regulation and more promotion of standards, good practices and self-regulation in the digital age.
- Ioana Avãdani (on left): Media literacy is crucial (Photo: Marius Dragomir)
When the BBC’s Lyse Doucet asked the audience at the panel debate who was in favour of introducing new regulations on the new media, not one hand was raised. Some participants said that the new media are already heavily regulated, to the same extent as any other public communication means. Others said that any new regulation would be bound to fail as it would be technically impossible to implement. Others again said that regulating at local level a global medium such as the internet is futile.
Ms Avãdani also stressed that media literacy is crucial in the digital age. Teaching internet users what their rights and obligations are, and how to define what is and is not private, should go hand in hand with training citizens how to protect themselves in the digital environment.
