OPINION: Mongolia’s Press Develops Needed Fact-Checking Alliance
Max Zhang (SFS ‘23) is a guest writer for the Caravel's opinion section. The content and opinions of this piece are the writer’s and the writer’s alone. They do not reflect the opinions of the Caravel or its staff.
The Mongolian parliament, housed in the Government Palace (above) will hold elections in 2020. (Wikimedia Commons)
Mongolia’s media landscape faces a new regulatory mechanism in FactCheck Mongolia, an information verification alliance that convened for the first time on September 18. FactCheck Mongolia’s establishment comes at a particularly vital political moment as the Mongolian public gears up for the country’s 2020 parliamentary elections and the onslaught of political misinformation that will likely accompany it.
Predominantly comprised of news organizations, FactCheck Mongolia seeks to develop and enforce mechanisms to regulate information distribution in both journalistic outlets and social media platforms. Participating journalists will undergo specialized training provided by German international broadcaster Deutsche Welle Akademie in conjunction with the Mongolian Center for Investigative Reporters. According to FactCheck’s social media, training consists of familiarization with fact-checking technology and practices. Members of the alliance will seek to apply these frameworks to verify their own media content, detect fake stories elsewhere, and respond accordingly with real information.
These practices will help enforce a high standard for content distribution among media outlets to counteract the spread of biased information in the coming months.
Social media outlets also fit in the scope of FactCheck Mongolia’s focus. In the last decade, Mongolia has experienced a meteoric rise in internet penetration, according to data provided by the Communications Regulatory Commission of Mongolia. Between 2009 and 2015, the number of internet subscribers in Mongolia increased more than twenty-fold. Accordingly, social media and internet platforms have skyrocketed in relative importance for political candidates and media organizations alike to draw attention to campaign ongoings. FactCheck Mongolia’s reporters aim to examine and verify stories spread through social media’s ever-increasing digital universe.
Mongolia’s press has occupied a unique position compared to its peers in nearby authoritarian countries. Since its 1990 democratic revolution, Mongolia has been a political anomaly in central Asia. Though considered a “flawed democracy” by the Economist Intelligence Unit’s Democracy Index, Mongolia has maintained a relatively high degree of respect for press freedom. Freedom House characterizes Mongolia’s media landscape as “pluralistic.” Very few to no journalists are subject to violence, and freedom of the press is legally mandated.
This being said, only one in ten Mongolian press organizations consistently discloses its sources of funding. Opacity about funding, in turn, limits the public’s ability to ascertain specific political affiliations or alignment with special interests that may affect the nature of reporting. Indeed, press watchdog organization Reporters Without Borders found that 74 percent of surveyed press organizations had some form of political affiliation. Moreover, recent government maneuvers to relax libel laws have threatened to curtail press freedom by expanding pre-existing definitions of libel and defamation. This sort of legislation incurs a greater threat of judicial consequence for journalistic expression.
Given the nature of press freedom in Mongolia, fact-checking organizations like FactCheck Mongolia ensure the veracity and balance of information. Mongolian media outlets have struggled in the past to run consistently true stories—even apolitical ones. Naturally, with the upcoming parliamentary elections, media outlets have an even greater responsibility to maintain objectivity and accuracy in their coverage.
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