Fake news, epistemic trust in democracies, and the crucial role of independent public broadcast

Much of the philosophical debate about fake news concerns its definition, whether or not it is believed by those who read it, and what the duties of news readers are to ensure they do not fall prey to misinformation. However, at a fundamental level, fake news is a problem for democratic systems because it can cause damage regardless of whether its content is believed. The mere knowledge of the prevalence of fake news threatens to undermine epistemic trust of citizens in each other and (by extension) their democratic system. At this fundamental level, philosophical concern should thus be targeted at the crucial importance of a sound informational environment for democracies. Plausible obligations for institutions in this respect include e.g. media literacy training of citizens via public education. But importantly, a fundamental role for a healthy information environment that informs democratic discourse and counters the threat of fake news falls to independent public broadcasters, or so I shall argue. Spelling out the case for public broadcast in the fight against fake news is crucial because such media are either underfunded and thus relatively ineffective (USA), or threatened in their existence due to partisan political agendas (UK), or their relevance is increasingly doubted (Germany) even though they currently present important voices in the media landscape. I will philosophically explain the moral relevance of independent public broadcast in securing the informational environment of democracies, and this is thus a timely topic even though it is not often associated with the problem of fake news.