promoting human rights in the digital era
Media, Technology & Human Rights
Media play a key role in democratic societies in how they respond to the challenges and problems thrown up by our digital age. Our lives are increasingly impacted by new technologies and digitalisation, a process accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic. We can now not only appreciate the benefits, but also see the negative impact on people’s rights, especially for vulnerable social groups.
Media workers need to recognise, expose and respond actively to the human rights abuses which result from the indiscriminate application of digital technologies.
With this in mind, Prague Centre for Media Skills has joined a unique project Promoting Human Rights in the Digital Era: Raising awareness and professional standards in journalism about the impact of modern technologies on human rights.
The 2-year project launched in January 2022 with funding from Norway Funds (No. LP-HRMGSA-017). PCMS is working with 4 other partner organisations to introduce the first long-term educational programme in the Czech Republic focused on fighting discrimination and human rights abuses. It will encourage the production and distribution of content created by specialist journalists who cover modern technologies and their application as part of their beat.
The programme has generated a series of online multimedia training videos and the publication of professional guidelines in Czech and English. These are intended both for student journalists and for professionals working in both Czech and Norwegian media, as part of the lifelong training experience.
Project News
- The PCMS Guidebook for Journalists has been thoroughly vetted by experts in journalism and special needs, and human rights (January 22, 2024).
- Explore the videos from the final symposium of the project “Promoting Human Rights in the Digital Era,” featuring Czech and English subtitles, along with an interpretation in Czech Sign Language (January 15, 2024).
- The concise and practical Guidebook for Journalists, funded by Norway Funds, is now available in English (January 31, 2023).
- Final project conference focused on addressing major digital challenges tied to ongoing digitization, with a special emphasis on understanding the media’s reflection of these changes and their impact on human rights (December 1, 2023).
- Launched a live 10-video online course with CZ and ENG subtitles addressing cybersecurity, privacy, accessibility, and algorithmization among other key issues (November 29, 2023).
- Presented ‘Promoting Human Rights in the Digital Era’ at INSPO Conference during Digital Week, highlighting gaps in journalist awareness on tech impact and accessibility for people with disabilities (November 25, 2023).
- PCMS, along with consortium partners, is gearing up for the upcoming project symposium. Check out the press release for more information (November 15, 2023).
- PCMS coordinated guidelines for journalists to enhance their grasp of the impact of technology and digitalization, and to decrease discrimination and human rights abuses (October 18, 2023).
- Following the 2023 undergraduate course on human rights in the digital age, a set of study texts, including PCMS contributions, was published (July 7, 2023).
- PCMS produced two instalments of a 2-part video course targeted at media professionals to increase understanding of the impact of digitalisation and new technologies on human rights (June 16, 2023).
- PCMS made its third contribution to a series of 13 lectures for undergraduate students of journalism at the Faculty of Social Sciences of Charles University, Prague. The lecture focused on the impact of digitalisation and new technologies on human rights (April 26, 2023).
- The second PCMS lecture to journalism students at Charles University covered the impact of modern technologies on people with special needs (March 29, 2023).
- Our opening PCMS lecture at Charles University took place with accessibility specialist Mariana Chytilova as guest speaker (March 22, 2023).
- Start of the Charles University course on Human Rights in the Digital Era (March 1, 2023).
- Public presentation of research results from the “Promoting Human Rights in the Digital Era” project (October 14, 2022).
- “You’ll Find It on the Internet.” Research findings from the “Promoting Human Rights in the Digital Era” project (June 6, 2022).
- Qualitative research with people with special needs to assess the impact of technology on their lives (March, 2022).
- Press release, ‘Promoting Human Rights in the Digital Era‘ goes live (March15, 2022).
Project Partners
Iuridicum remedium: Human Rights, Digital Rights
Institute of Communication Studies and Journalism, Faculty of Social Sciences, Charles University: Education, Journalism, Robotics and AI in Media
Institute of State and Law: Research, Law and AI
Prague Center for Media Skills: Media, Training and Human Rights
Elektronisk Forpost Norge (Electronic Frontier Norway): Digital Rights, Technology and Human Rights
Project Duration: January 2022- January 2024
For full updates, follow the project’s main webpage – https://ddlt.iure.org/
More information about the Norway Funds grant at: