Around the world journalists and commentators are fearful of growing threats to our democracies as misinformation and conspiracy theories spread through social media.

This week saw Facebook announce further moves to cut or remove fact checking, following similar changes at X, and with Donald Trump about to be installed as the next President of the United States those of us who care about a free and independent media are rightly worried.

In times such as these we know that the need for a fearless public broadcaster has never been greater. The ABC has been vitally important to our democracy for more than 90 years and to continue to be effective, it must be independent, free from commercial interests and immune from political interference.

These are the issues we will focus on in the lead up to our next election here in Australia early this year.

Award-winning freelance journalist and author, Margaret Simons, has written in The Guardian on the link between democracy and journalism.

Read the article

In early November last year, on the eve of the US election, she posed the question: How are people to decide how to cast a vote if they can’t access independent, reliable information? She said that now, more than ever before, the people who decide elections are those least engaged with professional news media that is well researched, fact-checked and reliable.

Ms Simons went on to ask if democracy can even work without that kind of journalism.

After painting a pretty grim picture of the rapid spread of misinformation and the undermining of quality journalism, she suggested that fake news and misinformation may not actually be as influential as many people think.

One of the bright spots she highlighted was the findings of a recent survey by Reuters Digital News Media which shows that countries with a strong investment in public service media, such as the BBC in Britain and ABC in Australia, have much higher rates of engagement with news and more political engagement.

…with the sands shifting beneath us, if we want voters to be well informed, we have to find a way of financially supporting and reinvigorating the journalistic mission – beyond internal chatter among the elite

ABC Friends has invited Ms Simons to join a discussion of these and other vital issues at its next meeting with our Parliamentary Friends at Parliament House, Canberra on 5 February. Chair of the ABC, Kim Williams will be the keynote speaker.

In the meantime, we are calling on all political candidates and parties to commit to specific legislative and other measures to protect the ABC's independence and to make a bold new investment in our public broadcaster to guarantee its future as factual and fearless.