The European Union elects its Parliament at the end of May. Could fake news affect the result? How can we take legal action against this? Is that even supposed to happen? Johanna Sebauer asked the media law expert Dr. Matthias Kettemann.
Lies are not forbidden. Who lies has to bear in most cases only social, but no legal consequences. However, some lies can have serious consequences. For example, when they influence political elections. The US election in 2016, the Bundestag election in 2017 and most recently the elections in Brazil in 2018 and Spain in 2019 have shown that false reports spread via the Internet can become a serious problem and endanger the balanced formation of public opinion.
How can democratic society be protected from potentially momentous lies or half-truths without losing freedom of expression? The media law expert Dr. Matthias Kettemann talks about the difficulty of recognising a lie as such on the Net and about the possibilities and limits of justice in fighting disinformation.
In this podcast, two Austrians sit opposite each other and are forgiven for occasionally relapsing into dialect. They make it up to you with a spontaneous contest at the end of the episode.
Links
Disinformation
Fake News
Bodies Dealing with Fake News within the EU
Case Radio Milles Collines
Tools to Expose Fake News
Matthias Kettemann
Johanna Sebauer
