ABSTRACT
An independent media is one of the strongest checks on government in any democracy. Freedom of expression is a fundamental prerequisite. During the last decade of the Cold War, bifurcated coverage of East-West relations resulted in less focus on the role of the media. The first Iraq war and the civil war in the former Yugoslavia gave rise to a series of events on the influence of the media on foreign policy. The importance of promoting an independent media, especially in developing countries and the West Balkans, was the focus of many discussions in the first decades of the millennium. With technological advances, the growing importance of the Internet and social media in the past two decades shifted Wilton Park’s attention towards discussion of the media in a wider sense, including the digital revolution and its abuses such as data breaches, cybercrime, and online abuse. Since 2015, there has been growing concern about truth in reporting (e.g. ‘fake news’) in the mainstream media and online, and what can be done to reverse the resulting weakening standards in public discourse, which has had adverse implications for democratic practice and outcomes.
