Vienna: Taking a dig at Donald Trump, Austria’s president has said that in this age of misinformation, anyone with a computer can depict himself as Jesus or a doctor, and the fundamental political strategy of autocrats is to ensure that people “no longer know right from wrong.”
With technology rapidly advancing to produce more convincing fake news, society will need credible news agencies “more than ever”, President Alexander Van der Bellen told a visiting delegation of executives from top news agencies around the world. PTI’s editor-in-chief Vijay Joshi was part of the delegation.
“As third-party quality seal, independent from politics, disconnected from clicks of followers, you triple-check and question everything”, he told the executives in a welcome speech late Thursday at the presidential palace. “I hope”, he added tongue in cheek.
Van der Bellen, a former economics professor and former leader of the left-wing Greens party, is an outspoken critic of right-wing populism, even though the coalition government of Austria is led by the far-right Freedom Party.
The president’s position in Austria is largely ceremonial and actual executive authority lies with the Chancellor and Cabinet ministers. However, the president has the power to dismiss the government, dissolve parliament and reject proposed ministers.
Van der Bellen, 82, began his speech by saying he would like to take the opportunity to give his guests “an ‘amazing crypto investment tip'”. This was his reference to a fake video he encountered on Internet where he was shown in “a fake interview with a fake voice” advocating a certain crypto investment.
He said the fakery was evident because his accent in the video was “shockingly” north German. Austrians also speak German but have a different accent, which he said “is tricky to imitate!”.
“With AI technologies rapidly progressing, it has become easy to manipulate what we see, what we hear, to manipulate truth”, he said.
“Basically, anyone with a computer can do it. Anyone can depict opponents in compromising scenes — or himself as Jesus. Or as a doctor”, he said. This was a reference to a recent meme that the US president put out, showing himself in the garb of Jesus healing people. After an uproar, Trump said he did not depict himself as God but as a doctor.
Van der Bellen said that with traditional media like newspapers coming under increasing pressure, news agencies must remain neutral, objective and committed to the truth.
“Truth matters. We need a shared understanding of what is right and what is wrong. Of what is a fact and what is just an opinion .. only then can we decide who to vote for, who to believe,” he said.
“There can be no liberal democracy without truth. There can be no bright future without truth,” he said. “Naturally, autocrats don’t like the truth. It is their political strategy to ensure that people no longer know right from wrong”, he said.
He then referred to The Associated Press news agency being banned from briefings by the White House, and Russia making it a crime to say the country is in a “full scale war” with Ukraine. Moscow calls it a “special military operation.”
While there is enormous pressure on media freedom and truth around the world, “it is not so bad in the European Union. Yet”, he said. “We all must try our best to keep it that way… so if we see truth being bent or undercut, we can still do something through strengthening our media and news agencies.”
He ended his speech with yet another quip: “If the world is coming to an end, if world catastrophe is approaching, better move to Vienna — Vienna is always about 10 years late to everything. Thanks again for coming to Vienna. And please don’t follow any of my investment tips.”
