Five Priority Areas to Bridge the Open Government and Information Integrity Agendas

In recent years, different stakeholders—including governments, international organizations, policy makers, researchers and civil society organizations—have used the concept of “information integrity” to provide a positive approach to how we address information chaos globally. From freedom and sustainability of the media to platform regulation through personal data protection and competition, information integrity builds on the principles of the International Partnership for Information and Democracy, established in September 2019 and endorsed by 54 countries around the world.

The implementing organization of this intergovernmental agreement, the Forum on Information and Democracy (FID), has played a key role in moving the information integrity agenda forward. As a founding member of FID with Reporters Without Borders, the Open Government PartnershipThe Open Government Partnership (OGP) is a multi-stakeholder initiative focused on improving government transparency, ensuring opportunities for citizen participation in public matters, and strengthen… More (OGP) brought a crucial added value to bridge this issue with those of open governance, as well as its experience in setting and implementing national action plans, notably through its challenges on digital governanceAs evolving technologies present new opportunities for governments and citizens to advance openness and accountability, OGP participating governments are working to create policies that deal with the … More and media freedom.

In this “year of elections,” more international solidarity is required to ensure information integrity. FID and OGP are committed to further coordinate their efforts on key challenges threatening the information space. This blog focuses on five recommendations to advance reform on this topic.

Apply open governance principles to developing and implementing information integrity policies

The open governance principles of participation, transparencyAccording to OGP’s Articles of Governance, transparency occurs when “government-held information (including on activities and decisions) is open, comprehensive, timely, freely available to the pub… More, and cooperation should guide how policy makers, civil society, and the private sectorGovernments are working to open private sector practices as well — including through beneficial ownership transparency, open contracting, and regulating environmental standards. Technical specificat… More work together to protect information integrity. With its unique expertise in the process of shaping open governance processes, OGP could play a key role to support the policy reforms on information integrity among its members.

Bridge agendas and communities

As much as the connection between information integrity and open governance might be obvious, agenda-setting moments (international conferences and fora and major policy moments) and communities largely remain siloed. A first step for OGP and FID should be to build more bridges between the two to ensure better coordination, awareness, and impact. The two organizations could organize a series of policy discussions with representatives from different fields of interest. This should result in better coordination on advocacy at the national, regional, and global levels.

Collaborate on policy implementation

Over the last five years, FID has published hundreds of concrete, actionable recommendations, including on how to end infodemics, ensuring pluralism online, and on AI and the information space. The national action plans co-created by OGP members could be a strong vehicle for the implementation of these recommendations for regulationGovernment reformers are developing regulations that enshrine values of transparency, participation, and accountability in government practices. Technical specifications: Act of creating or reforming … in rights respecting environments.

Collaborate on engagement with governments

The French saying “Ministers move on, the administration stays” is undoubtedly common to both open governance and information integrity. Still, having the support of the government is crucial to ensure the political traction of priorities related to information integrity. Bringing the two topics together and joint engagement with political figures should further facilitate access to certain governments and ensure better coordination between different priorities.

Broaden the scope of access to information laws to include big tech

The information space is an ocean of which we know very little. Access to data in this space has been an advocacy priority for hundreds of researchers and activists for many years. Yet, aside from the progress made in the European Union with the Digital Services Act, little progress has been made. Worse, platforms such as X and Meta have started to restrict data access for researchers, journalists, and civil society organizations even more.

Notable progress of the open government agenda has been access to information laws. These provide members of the public with access to state-owned data, a crucial aspect of civic participation. There is growing interest in having the perimeter of these laws widened to include entities that structure whole sections of societies. OGP and FID could explore the feasibility of this opportunity.

As disinformation is perceived more and more as one of the top short-term risks to democracy, social cohesion, and peace, it is urgent that different actors build more bridges between interlinked issues. Only by having a whole-of-society approach to information integrity can we ensure the resilience of societies. As it is often said amongst disinformation experts, there is no silver bullet to solve the current information crisis. But getting more buy-in from other communities and involving complementary views and objectives are necessary first steps.