The Nigerian Guild of Editors (NGE) has joined 50 individual and organisations from across the world to endorse the “Big Tech and Journalism: Principles for Fair Compensation,” which is a framework for negotiation between registered news businesses and designated big digital platforms, like Google and Facebook.

The framework would streamline payment that publishers would be entitled to receive from the big tech for the inclusion of news content on their platforms.

The “Big Tech and Journalism: Principles for Fair Compensation” was adopted recently at a conference held at the Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS), Johannesburg, South Africa with participants from 24 countries, with support from leading journalists, media organisations, scholars, publishing groups, activists and economists, including 2001 Nobel Laureate, Prof. Joseph E. Stiglitz.

The principles are intended to be universal, serving as a framework for any country seeking to address media sustainability through competition or regulatory approaches, while enabling adaptation to the unique context. They would also represent an important step forward in addressing news media sustainability and serve as a guide to journalists, news publishers, big tech platforms, governments and regulators across the world.

According to the organisers of the conference, “these principles are intended to help in the design, implementation and evaluation of public policy mechanisms that oblige digital platforms and news publishers to engage with each other to develop fair economic terms. The principles also recognise freedom of expression as a foundational human right underpinning democracy and support public interest journalism as a public good that should be available to all. Any mechanisms pertaining to the principles must therefore be founded on the same commitment.”

The conference entitled, “The Big Tech and Journalism – Building a Sustainable Future for the Global South” brought together journalists, news publishers, media organisations, scholars, activists, lawyers, and economists from 24 countries to discuss solutions to the crisis of the sustainability of journalism and its intersection with the role of major tech platforms.

It shared lessons learned and identify commonalities within and across regions with regard to media sustainability initiatives via legislation and competition authorities.

The conference featured panel discussions focusing on South Africa, Australia, Latin America, Asia, and Africa, as well as a series of keynotes by distinguished speakers.

The conference noted: “Mechanisms should support and invest in public interest journalism, by which we mean news and information produced to professional journalistic standards which informs the public about matters that are relevant to their rights and responsibilities as citizens. Mechanisms may also have the effect of supporting other forms of journalism, but – other things being equal – they should prioritise the support of public interest journalism.

“Mechanisms should support plurality in the platform and publishing markets. In particular, mechanisms should have a net positive impact on the plurality of publishers in a market. They should not create a bias in favour of incumbent publishers or platforms but should serve to mitigate any incumbency bias so that the public can – in the medium to long term – benefit from a greater range of platforms and publishers. Very small, medium and start-up publishers must be able to benefit.

“Mechanisms should support diversity in the news publishing market and should have a net positive impact on the range of content, voices and languages represented in the news market, including the voices of historically under-represented and marginalised groups. They should not create a bias in favour of historically dominant voices.

“Mechanisms should support sustainability in the news publishing market, for individual publishers and the sector as a whole, by ensuring they receive fair compensation for the use of their intellectual property and content. Mechanisms should adapt to evolving market conditions and enhance the likelihood that publishers can build diverse revenue streams.

“Mechanisms should ensure that terms of engagement between platforms and publishers are consistent across a market, and do not allow individual platforms or publishers to strike preferential arrangements. This does not mean that all platforms should give all publishers the same amount of money. But it does mean that the basis for payments and usage deals should be the same for all publishers in that market, and determined using objectively verifiable criteria.

“Platforms should not be able to favour certain publishers simply because those publishers have greater political influence or larger market capitalisation, for example. It also means that all deals between platforms and publishers should be agreed upon in a similarly timely manner and that neither party should be able to use their comparative bargaining power to drag out negotiations.”

“Small and medium-sized publishers should be allowed to coordinate their efforts, which may include collective bargaining with platforms.”

Some of the organisations that endorsed “The Big Tech and Journalism – Building a Sustainable Future for the Global South” include BBC Media Action, United Kingdom; Digital Journalism Association (Ajor), Brazil; Campaign for Free Expression, South Africa; Eastern Africa Editors Society, and Foro de Periodismo Argentino (FOPEA), Argentina.

The post NGE joins 50 media groups, practitioners to endorse global principles for fair compensation by Google, Facebook appeared first on The Sun Nigeria.