Ofcom has announced changes to its Access Services Code and best practice guidelines to improve the accessibility of TV and on-demand programs for audiences with access needs, such as those who are blind, d/Deaf, or have sight and hearing loss. Access services include subtitles, signing, and audio description, which broadcasters are required by law to provide for a certain proportion of their programming.

The new approach focuses on outcomes for audiences and offers advice on serving people with cognitive and neurodevelopmental conditions, improving dialogue audibility for hearing loss, and providing customization options.

The European Audiovisual Observatory published a new in-depth analysis of the various measures taken across Europe to protect children from the watching harmful content on VSPs. The study has been co-financed by the European Commission under Creative Europe.

The Report examines the provisions of European legislation and analyzes the different solutions found and implemented by the various EU member states and the United Kingdom.
The issues addressed include the age of use of VSPs , and age verification, the various parental control systems, monitoring functions, content blocking or filtering mechanisms, screen time limitation and direct messaging functions, and content rating.

The UK's communications regulator, Ofcom, published a paper that discuss the existing literature on the effectiveness of a variety of safety measures applied by some online platforms at reducing hate speech online.

This analysis summarises the key findings, highlight gaps, and offer suggestions to shape the direction of future research.

It highlights the importance of assessing the accuracy of hate speech classification by conducting our own analysis of the accuracy of commonly used hate speech classifiers and exploring the implications for research on the effectiveness of a safety measure.

The Office of Science and Technology of the Congress of Deputies, in Spain, published a report “Disinformation in the digital age” that delves into the causes and impacts of disinformation, as well as the mechanisms that can help combat it. This work gathers scientific data on the topic and aims to serve as a reference for members of Congress when adopting legislative initiatives.

This guide explores educational responses and provides guidance and recommendations to policy-makers on how to strengthen education systems to counter hate speech.

A new report from Ofcom reveals that 96% of children in the UK use video platforms such as TikTok, Twitch and Snap. However, it was found that not all young people have the knowledge/skills to use them safely, which leads to a greater risk of accessing content that could be harmful to children's physical and mental development.

Ofcom’s Report on “How video-sharing platforms (VSPs) protect children from encountering harmful videos" warns of the need for these digital platforms to adopt online protection measures such as age guarantees, access control and mechanisms for classifying, reporting and flagging content that is considered inappropriate for this audience.

The Reuters Institute published a report “Journalism, media, and technology trends and predictions 2024” which highlights the significant impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on media companies, particularly on the production and distribution of content.

According to a survey of 314 media leaders from 56 countries, 70% of respondents believe that AI and Generative AI will, on balance, lower trust levels in the news overall.

The report also warns of the need for journalists and news organisations to rethink their role and purpose with some urgency.

The Reuters Institute published a report “Journalism, media, and technology trends and predictions 2024” which highlights the significant impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on media companies, particularly on the production and distribution of content.

According to a survey of 314 media leaders from 56 countries, 70% of respondents believe that AI and Generative AI will, on balance, lower trust levels in the news overall.

The report also warns of the need for journalists and news organisations to rethink their role and purpose with some urgency.

UNESCO figures show that at least 38 journalists and media workers were killed in the line of work in countries in conflict in 2023, compared to 28 in 2022 and 20 in 2021.

The last three months of this year in particular have already been the deadliest quarter for journalists in conflict zones since at least 2007, with the ongoing hostilities in the Middle East being responsible for a large majority of conflict-related killings.

UNESCO has launched Guidelines for the Governance of Digital Platforms.

The Guidelines outline a set of duties, responsibilities and roles for States, digital platforms, intergovernmental organizations, civil society, media, academia, the technical community and other stakeholders to enable the environment where freedom of expression and information are in the core of digital platforms governance processes.

The Guidelines were produced through a multi-stakeholder consultation that gathered more than 10,000 comments from 134 countries.