Information integrity and media issues on the G20 agenda: from Brazil to South Africa
Media Statement
For Immediate Release
19 May 2025
Representatives from South African media, international partners, and civil society last week gathered to discuss the Brazilian G20 presidency’s 2024 focus on information integrity, and how to pursue media sustainability, independent journalism and information integrity this year during the South African G20 presidency.
The meeting was hosted by the French ambassador in Pretoria, in collaboration with the Forum on Information and Democracy (FID), the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) and Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) as part of the SA led M20 initiative to highlight the importance of media, journalism and information integrity issues for the G20.
Recognising the importance of access to public interest information, the Brazilian government had put the topic of information integrity among its G20 presidency priorities. As a result, the G20 Digital Economy Working Group last year published a declaration that incorporates attention to this topic, and the Brazilian government launched a Global Initiative for Information Integrity on Climate Change.
The M20 objectives include aligning G20, African and global south media organisations and journalists with the UN global principles for information integrity; building capacity to report on interconnected topics like global debt, climate change and AI; advocate for universal access to public interest journalism and media as a public good; and mobilise investment and structural support for independent, diverse, and credible media ecosystems.
The M20 also just released its first policy brief, calling on the G20 to recognise that the crisis of information integrity is growing at the same time as the news media is shrinking. “This imbalance threatens the interests of the 2025 G20 priorities of combating climate change, inequalities, and dangerous debt levels, as well as addressing issues of disaster resilience and critical minerals … The G20 needs to realise that without stronger efforts to support information integrity, humanity will flounder as new challenges appear and opportunities are lost.”
Speakers at the event at the French Residence included David Martinon, the French ambassador to South Africa, Lesotho, and Malawi, Benedicto Fonseca Filho, the ambassador of Brazil to South Africa, Paula Miraglia from the Momentum Journalism and Tech Task force in Brazil, Tshamano Makhadi from Sanef, Sbu Ngalwa from The African Editors’ Forum (TAEF) and Sanef, William Bird from MMA and Katharina Zuegal from FID.
With rising threats to information ecosystems, including mis- and dis-information, shrinking newsrooms, attacks on journalists in conflict areas across the globe, and the unchecked power of big tech and social media platforms, the M20 initiative strives to fill a critical gap in global governance spaces by foregrounding the role of independent, credible, and factual media in shaping democracies. Media freedom is a cornerstone of democracy and enables democratic participation and accountability.
The M20 initiative will interact with official G20 engagement groups and advocate for media recognition as a core pillar of sustainable financial development, human rights, and global cooperation.
The M20 programme includes regular convenings of media and information integrity experts through panel discussions, workshops, webinars, and policy briefs, culminating in an international M20 summit as part of a week of conferences on the future of journalism in early September in Johannesburg:
– the SA Media Summit organised by Sanef on 1 Sept
– the M20 conference organised by Sanef, MMA and partners on 2 Sept
– the CTRL + J conference organised by the GIBS Media Leadership Think Tank and IFPIM on 3 to 5 Sept
For more information, visit the M20 website https://media20.org/ or contact the M20 secretariat at [email protected].