This is what we asked ourselves in the new round of #BG4SDGs, our format of interviews with special guests born with the aim of understanding what is the state of progress towards the 17 Sustainable Development Goals identified in the UN 2030 Agenda.
The new goal we decided to explore is the 16th, dedicated to Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions and aimed at promoting laws and policies in favour of sustainable development at an international level, also through the use of information media such as the media and the web.
Precisely for this reason, we decided to involve Oreste Pollicino, Professor of Constitutional Law and Media Law at the Bocconi University of Milan, to understand how disinformation can generate confusion without contributing to the creation of a common awareness on environmental and social issues.
Does jurisprudence show a chronic lag towards technology?
With the technological evolution of recent years, it almost seems as if law and institutions are unable to keep up with the digital, showing almost a chronic delay.
To this provocation, however, Professor Oreste Pollicino responds that in reality 'the issue of disinformation was already known in 1948 as demonstrated by the Declaration of Human Rights issued by the United Nations in which it already speaks of the freedom to inform, to express oneself and above all to be informed. This is why there is no need to think of new provisions when those that already exist only need to be readjusted to the context and the technological problem'.
#BG4SDGs | Massimo Sideri & Oreste Pollicino
So what can we concretely do to achieve peace and justice through transparent information?
One of the activities carried out by the professor is precisely the creation, together with the European Commission of which he is a member, of a code of conduct against disinformation that engages not only big tech, but society as a whole precisely because, as the Ukraine-Russia conflict in recent weeks has shown, propaganda and information are a real instrument of war.
And in this regard, he says that it is crucial 'to have a single code, where the needs of the public and the private sector are brought together to regulate them and for both sides to follow. This can be one of the important answers to prevent war phenomena and the lack of a sustainable culture'.
Financial education as a tool for awareness
In the financial sector, transparent information is synonymous with trust.
Financial education is one of those tools that has the task of creating awareness through the exchange of useful information for the correct formulation of investment choices that can have an impact on our planet.
In fact, the Professor adds: 'Transparency is also a pivotal concept for the financial world, where trust is the underlying value that fuels the direct relationship of financial institutions with their stakeholders'.
Oreste Pollicino, Professor of Constitutional Law and Media Law at Bocconi University
Transparency is also a pivotal concept for the financial world, where trust is the underlying value that fuels the direct relationship of financial institutions with their stakeholders.
