The World Editors Forum has engaged and joined United Nations agency UNESCO in the issue of fighting fake news at a time when publishers are weakened by loss of revenue to digital and social media giants.

WEF president Marcelo Rech says a colloquium held last month by UNESCO's division of freedom of expression and media development is "a first step" to finding a solution.

The discussion under the title Journalism under fire was supported by WAN-Ifra, the International Programme for the Development of Communication, and the governments of Finland, Switzerland, France, Latvia, Lithuania and the Netherlands.

Scholars, journalists and representatives of social media companies and media development organisations discussed the recent challenges posed to journalism by "fake news" as well as the technological and economic transformations reshaping the media landscape. Topics ranged from rise of identity politics, to threats to business models, responses to the spread of "fake news", the role of social media platforms, and the importance of journalism training and media and information literacy.

At WAN-Ifra's Publish Asia conference in Kuala Lumpur, Rech outlined the "five principles for next level journalism" agreed at the organisation's congress in Colombia, and emphasised the need for urgent action as journalists take on the role of fact-checkers.

What he called "social media bubbles and the echo chambers of infinite likes on the same kind of opinions" carried the threat of progressive radicalisation of behaviour and alienation of dissident thinking.

"For this reason, if someday there is no professional and independent journalism, or if it be so weak that it becomes irrelevant, the world would be on the brink of a social and economic disaster," he said.

"The antidote to the cataclysm is journalism, but even better journalism than today. Society still has to support the notion that good journalism doesn't come at a cheap price.
He says debunking rumours on a digital and permanent scale would demand more and more resources at a time when media companies are deeply affected by the diversion of money drawn to social media and its digital giants.

"The irony is that the business model of the gigantic social media enterpreneurships depends on quality content - exactly what media companies provide.

"If and when both worlds engage in an harmonic an sustainable model that could create an environment to keep professional journalism alive and growing, the bad guys of false information will finally be out of town."

• See Publish Asia address at: Marcelo Rech: In the business of trust