Patrick Penninckx, Head of the Information Society Department at the Council of Europe addressed the audience in the opening session of the Global Media and Information Literacy Week Feature Conference. The event took place on 24 -25 October 2018 at the Vytautas Magnus University in Kaunas, Lithuania under the theme “Media and Information Literate Cities: Voices, Powers and Change Makers”.

In light of the on-going digital revolution, Patrick Penninckx highlighted the importance of developing cognitive, technical and social capacities allowing individuals to critically analyse content, to make informed decisions taking into account ethical implications and to communicate effectively. He also emphasised the contribution of media literacy to media pluralism and diversity and to countering false or misleading information. He also presented a number of relevant Council of Europe instruments, policies, studies and activities.

The annually commemorated Media and Information Literacy (MIL) Week is an occasion to bring together stakeholders and foster dialogue on progress, events and actions in the field of MIL as well as to promote connections across disciplines and professions. This year’s MIL Week highlights the importance of media information literacy for sustainable and smart cities. The Feature Conference is co-organised by UNESCO, Vytautas Magnus University and University of Latvia to explore ways of educating citizens in MIL in different types of environments and aims to contribute to making learning a process of social change, fostering human rights online and offline as well as critical civic participation and intercultural dialogue.

Find here a number of related Council of Europe Documents:

• CM/Rec(2018)1 on media pluralism and transparency of media ownership
• CM/Rec(2018)7 on Guidelines to respect, protect and fulfil the rights of the child in the digital environment
• No Hate Speech Movement
• Regional Conference - Addressing hate speech in the media: the role of regulatory authorities and the judiciary
• Study: “Information Disorder: Toward an interdisciplinary framework for research and policy making”
• MSI-JOQ Committee of experts on quality journalism in the digital age