ABSTRACT
The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirms each individual’s right to “seek, receive and impart information and ideas, through any media and regardless of frontiers” (United Nations, 1948). This ideal aim seemed to be at hand with the development of the global network and its related information technologies, widely acknowledged as potential enablers to achieve the goal of global access to information. And yet disparities in access to information still exist, due not mainly to technological obstacles, but to lack of awareness of the problem and, consequently, insufficient policy measures.
“Access to information” implies overcoming at least three main requirements: (1) availability of distribution networks (physical access), (2) cost affordability (economic access), and (3) competence to identify and critically evaluate information sources (cognitive access). Information literacy is pivotal in cognitive access and is treated in the chapter from a policy perspective and as a factor enabling informed citizenship while contrasting disinformation.
