M20: Media pushes for seat at international high table
The M20 Summit, an independent, fringe event to the G20 programme in South Africa to highlight relevant media, journalism and information integrity issues, starts on Monday.
And already, organisers are enthusiastic about its potential impact. “Even if the G20 continues to ignore media, we already consider the international interest in convincing the G20 to consider the role of media a success,” says convenor Izak Minnaar, of the South African National Editors Forum (Sanef).
Participation is already over-subscribed, explains Minnaar, with leading representatives from global media, freedom of expression, and information integrity organisations who have “contributed some of their best brains to help develop the policy briefs as the backbone of our M20 initiative.”
The initiative is organised by (Sanef) and Media Monitoring Africa after they realised: “There was no reference to the role of media in G20 economies; on the future-proofing of journalism or, in fact, on information integrity as a whole,” explains Minnaar.
“It was especially surprising because not even the references in the global compact of the role of media in supporting media integrity – none of that – appeared on the South African G20 agenda.”
“In 2023, Siddharth Varadarajan, the co-founder of The Wire in India hosted the M20 conference, which is the origin of what we’re doing now. And last year in Brazil – where the government had put the topic of information integrity among its G20 presidency priorities – media advocacy resulted in the Global Fund for Climate Change Reporting,” explains Minnaar.
What started as an informal engagement group to try to influence the G20 now comprises a global advisory group of media leaders from more than 20 organisations on the continent and around the world – including Varadarajan.
“Many of them contributed some of their best brains to help develop the policy briefs as the backbone of our M20 initiative.”
Issues identified and outlined in the policy briefs include: information integrity, AI, Intellectual Property, children’s rights, and a range on journalism and media viability.
“The policy briefs will contribute to a summit declaration that calls the media on the issues that they need to advance, and call on the G20 to reflect media, journalism and information integrity issues in their work and in their statements.”
Looking ahead – and calling for collaboration
The impact it will have is uncertain – but that M20 will continue is assured.
Future plans will be discussed at the last session on the program, post-summit meetings are being set and talks on how to support the M20 agenda issue during next year’s US Presidency are already underway.
For now, the call is out for collaboration. “We’re asking any organisation, anywhere, who has an interest in influencing the G20 agenda, to collaborate in whatever way – even if just to publish our materials, they’re really welcome to do so,” enjoins Minnaar.
Read, download and share the M20 Policy Briefs:
