Iranian Journalists Urge Curbs on Fake News

Date: 29 November 2023 - 22:02

News ID: ۱۲۲۰۵۴

TEHRAN -- A group of
Iranian journalists and film critics have issued a statement demanding legal action against those behind the unethical news flow in Telegram channels.
“For some time, the new flow especially in the field of cinema has been going astray. This deviation occurs through the channels that play the role of a tool to fulfill the goals of certain real and legal persons,” they said in a letter.
“The communication and technology space has definitely progressed due to the development of science, leading to new definitions of media, but unfortunately, these new definitions are not always a pleasant phenomenon, and sometimes they introduce immature and abnormal forms of media, which are detrimental.
“The duty of cinema and media activists requires that, along with supporting the professional media and the main activists in this field, they prevent the damage and mushrooming of fake news,” they added.
“Through telling lies, hypocrisy and violating the privacy of people, the shady movement tries to marginalize the effective forces of cinema, and since they lack any authority among the cinema and media community, they operate without a clear identity in the opaque space. They tarnish the honor and dignity of journalism and film journalism,” the signatories said.
For common understanding, they explained the functioning of fake news on Telegram, Instagram, X and other communication platforms where “professional media activists are busy producing content, but in the meantime, ransom news producers are mushrooming in Telegram, have been formed overnight with the fake members who merely play the role of a reproductive fungus for spore distribution.
They publish an article based on the goals of a natural or legal person with all kinds of unprovable slanders and obscene epithets on the channel, and then anonymous users carry out the spore distribution operation. This means the article is sent from the fake channel to all groups and individuals, where the person who has been slandered has neither the possibility to complain, nor the possibility to respond, explain or hold any institution or person accountable.
“A small number of cinema managers and activists use these channels in the worst possible way. By providing financial support to the creators of these channels, they publish their desired content in this space and then send the content to their upstream managers and their target community by quoting fake news, thereby giving credit to the channels under their support,” the signatories said.
“Based on this, we media people want to deal with this abnormal phenomenon, because the number of these channels is increasing every day, which has created a toxic atmosphere among cinema and media people. We also recommend that culture and art managers and activists follow the correct flow of media from official authorities instead of citing the contents of these fake news channels.”