Adoption of the OECD Recommendation on Information Integrity

In partnership with the Information and Democracy Forum (I&DF), the Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD) prepared a joint contribution, which was signed by I&DF, GFMD, and 22 partner organisations.

The Recommendation on Information Integrity represents the first international soft law on information integrity and is an important step forward to mobilise international support for media and information integrity. It highlights the role of journalism in development and democracy while addressing challenges facing public-interest media.

The draft Recommendation incorporates elements from the OECD Development Co-operation Principles for Relevant and Effective Support to Media and the Information Environment (March 2024).

While the Principles provide broad, overarching norms and guidelines in the development aid area, the OECD Recommendation is a legal instrument adopted by the OECD Council, focusing on practical implementation.

The adopted document expands definitions and provides a more nuanced elaboration on media and information literacy (including digital literacy, news literacy, media literacy, algorithm literacy, and AI literacy) as well as disinformation. It also includes additional details on institutional frameworks, accountability mechanisms, and open government initiatives.

The recommendations now include a background and justification section, offering historical and practical context, including the motivation for the recommendation and details of its development process.

Key inclusions

Key inclusions from the joint contribution document submitted by I&DF and GFMD are as follows:

• A caution that policy interventions related to information integrity must be lawful, justified, proportionate, and compliant with human rights laws and obligations, ensuring they do not result in excessive government control over information.
• Enhanced definitions of online information platforms, with examples including search engines, social media platforms, message boards, app ecosystems, online forums, and gaming and virtual worlds. However, “messaging platforms” and “user-generated content platforms” were not included.
• Further elaboration on the challenges posed by artificial intelligence to information integrity, with added language to address these issues.
• Inclusion of references to conflicts of interest, not only concerning direct owners of media outlets but also the beneficiaries of media outlets.

Areas for Improvement

• While the recommendations provide improvements in nuance and technical and policy measures, they do not explicitly reference global agreements, principles, or the human rights framework, which was one of the strongest suggestions of the joint contribution. The final text does not explicitly connect societal resilience to broader principles such as transparent governance, trust-building, or addressing global inequalities.
• In the section on data access and transparency, the document provides general recommendations for data sharing and advertising transparency but does not mandate alignment with DSA and Global Digital Compact level of standards, nor does it elaborate on human-rights-based advertising practices. While it suggests data sharing for vetted researchers, it lacks specificity on vetting processes, independence, or appeal mechanisms.
• In sections on transparency and content moderation, the adopted text could more explicitly ground transparency efforts in human rights principles and provide greater detail on ad-related disclosures.
• In sections on monitoring and evaluation, the adopted text includes evaluation mechanisms but could benefit from specific recommendations for civil society independence, resources, and global capacity-building.

GFMD welcomes the adoption of the Recommendation and expresses hope that its implementation will ensure alignment with the global human rights framework and existing standards, as well as broader principles of transparent governance.

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