“If you stop someone on the street in your hometown and ask whether they want more news, faster news, more information or yet another programme with politicians arguing – the answer, perhaps to the surprise of many of us in the media, will be four times: ‘No, thank you!’

What people truly need is someone they can trust, someone they can rely on, someone who brings order to the chaos and creates a public space for debating how we solve the problems in our communities. We call this form of journalism Constructive Journalism. And its time has now come.”

“We stand at a crossroads: security, the common good, and democracy are acutely at risk. Only if science provides actionable options and politics actively seeks out scientific knowledge can we overcome the current challenges – this requires reforms in both systems.”

A Dutch proverb says: trust comes on foot and leaves on horseback. Building trust takes time, but losing it happens very quickly. That is why science, politics, and society must work together to restore and protect it. In view of the information warfare that increasingly threatens democratic structures, safeguarding trust is more urgent today than ever.

“We are currently witnessing a breakdown of social cohesion in many countries. Digital storytelling fuels polarizing conflicts and undermines our ability to communicate. That is why we are implementing first-aid measures – to strengthen communicative resilience in schools, political consulting, civil protection, and journalism.”

“We must invest more strongly in information security and integrity, and create secure spaces for democratic discourse. These spaces guarantee the dissemination of evidence-based information – free from hate speech and destructive practices.”