Tag: 2025

The light we cannot lose
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On this World News Day, for too many people, the future is getting too dark to see. This moment is best described as living in a state of perpetual flux, of global uncertainty and deep, unsettling insecurity. 
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Our world is increasingly built on information, sometimes almost exclusively, and the news media is its basic infrastructure.

Like water and energy, we often only notice its absence when the service stops. So too, with reliable news: only when it disappears will we realise how deeply our daily lives depend on the steady delivery of reliable information.

AI is an important part of our common future, but it will not be a panacea for every problem we encounter. An algorithm still cannot replace a dogged reporter or a savvy investigative journalist.

It is humans who make a crucial difference – because only humans can bring empathy, moral judgment, and persistence to the search for truth.

As the institutions of old are crumbling, and many are already gone with no replacement, this task is getting more complex by the day.

In this perilous moment, news media’s duty, its daily delivery, and indeed its existence itself, feel more important and consequential than ever before. We are still truth’s most important messengers.

If we are to continue delivering on our mission’s promise, we in the news media also must think long and hard about the years ahead.

We understand that, with the greatest urgency, we must reaffirm news media’s compact with the communities we serve; to fortify our personal covenant with each and every reader, viewer and listener; to hold steady while the very ground is shaking under our feet.

We strive to be guardians of the line separating current times from an all-too-realistic dystopian future.

As you read this, journalism is suspended precariously between old and new worlds; an integral part of both history but also of the transformation that is rewiring our humanity right now; a force for change and yet itself in danger of becoming a relic of the past.

What once was a comfortably profitable business has now transformed into a struggling sector with an uncertain future.

In these changing times, our old media business model has rapidly aged. A new one is still nowhere to be found.

When newsrooms close, communities lose watchdogs. Corruption flourishes in the dark. Truth has fewer defenders.

We are hardly making any money anymore, harassment is our daily norm, and our long-term viability is under threat. Financial precarity knocks on the doors of all but the most secure outlets.

Autocrats, Big Tech, influencers, and industries of all colours are still major news media consumers even as many from those circles claim it has no importance anymore.

‘Ordinary’ readers might not know, but in every discussion, every debate, every understanding and every decision made, there was a significant, and most times decisive, component of the news media reporting.

For many decades, journalism has been a defender of global democratic values and the rules-based system that has defined our civilisation and underpinned an unprecedented, if unevenly distributed, period of planetary growth and prosperity.

We were there every step of the way: to report on human rights abuse, the horror of armed conflict, the injustice of corruption, and so much more.

It is highly unlikely that we will ever return to these ‘old’ times though – the march of technology is ushering in a new era that changes the very fundamentals of our lives together.

And yet, whichever shape our ‘new’ civilisation may take, it will still have to have its foundations in trustworthy information – that’s the only solid ground that anything lasting can be built on.

As a human race, we evolved because we were able to pass information to the next generation. Information is the best, and possibly the most powerful technology we have ever invented.

But we cannot create, or re-create, anything while flying blind, or stumbling in the dark.

It is not only the democracies that die in darkness, it is entire civilisations that perish. The news media’s message on this World News Day is not about saving sectoral jobs – it is about saving what we all built over thousands of years. Our civilisation is worth fighting for.

An overwhelming majority of journalists swear a silent oath to serve our communities by serving truth. It is a sacred duty that fulfils our lives in ways that richly compensate for any financial shortcomings and deprivations.

Truth and trust are truly of the essence in moments like these.

And the best way to respect yourself is to be careful about your sources and who you trust.

Support the news that supports you. Subscribe, share, defend truth. Choose trustworthy journalism – because without it, the light goes out for us all.

By Branko Brkic, Leader: Project Kontinuum; co-founder: Daily Maverick

This opinion piece was commissioned as part of the World News Day campaign – an initiative to show the value of journalism.
September 28, 2025
Your right to know: Why journalism and access to information matter more than ever
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Independent journalism and access to public information are mutually reinforcing: societies cannot remain informed or resilient if either is undermined, write David Walmsley and Tawfik Jelassi, who stress that defending the right to know is not optional.
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Today is both World News Day and the International Day for Universal Access to Information – a good time to remember that if we lose our fundamental universal right to access to information, and if independent journalists lose the ability to report the facts, then our rights and democracies may vanish entirely.

Access to information is a fundamental human right empowering us all to make informed decisions, to participate in democratic processes, and hold our leaders accountable. It’s also critical for survival in a host of situations.

In a natural disaster, timely updates about evacuation routes, shelter locations, and weather conditions can mean the difference between life and death.

In public health emergencies – as we saw during the COVID-19 pandemic – accurate information about symptoms, prevention methods, and treatment options helps people protect themselves and others.

And in conflict zones, knowing which areas are safe and how to access humanitarian aid is vital.

Today, 139 countries have access to information (ATI) legal frameworks and 90 per cent of the world’s population lives in a country where this right is enshrined.

Just 30 years ago, fewer than 20 countries were in this club.

UNESCO data shows that in 2022, 3.5 million public information requests were processed; in 2024, that number had risen to 6.7 million – a clear sign that people want transparency.

The global number of information requests is also increasing with the advent of digital solutions, which facilitate their processing.

But major gaps remain in some regions of the world: In Africa, data gathered in 2024 by the Africa Freedom of Information Centre, showed that 29 out of the 55 countries in the region have ATI laws, but implementation is often patchy.

UNESCO helped to set up the African Network of Information Commissioners (ANIC) which enables oversight bodies across the continent to communicate regularly on the most effective ways to implement and enforce ATI laws, and helps to raise the profile of the access to information in human rights for a on the continent.

Access to public information is an important resource for journalists, just as journalists are essential vectors for enabling citizens to access information. Journalism has always been a key bridge between governments and the people.

When officials stay silent, journalists investigate. They verify information, and tell the public what’s really going on. Journalism isn’t just a job: it’s a public service.

Behind every important news story is someone asking hard questions. Journalists make regular use of access to information laws to conduct their research and break stories that lead to meaningful change.

But this crucial democratic check is increasingly under threat. Journalists face violence, censorship, and online harassment.

In 2024, 70% of journalists around the world who responded to a UNESCO survey said they had experienced attacks ranging from online harassment, to legal threats and actual violence when reporting on environmental issues.

Independent newsrooms are being squeezed financially. Disinformation clogs our feeds, often spreading faster than facts. The fog of lies grows thicker, while trust in truth fades.

This is what we see, for example, in issues related to climate disruption.

This led the International Court of Justice and the Inter-American Court of Human Rights to both recognise that access to environmental information was essential for addressing this critical issue. Because you can’t protect what you can’t see or understand.

So what can we do?

We can urge our governments to support quality journalism by supporting independent media and fully enforce access to information laws. And we can call out disinformation as soon as we spot it, and push politicians, social media platforms, and AI companies to be more accountable.

Access to information is not a threat, but an opportunity for our societies. Today, and every day, let‘s all defend our right to know.

By David Walmsley, President of WAN-IFRA’s World Editors Forum, and Dr Tawfik Jelassi, UNESCO Assistant Director General for Communication and Information

This article was commissioned to mark World News Day and the International Day for Universal Access to Information.
September 28, 2025
Turning news into action: Engaging Gen Z and Millennials locally
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Leaders of the award-winning, hyperlocal The Green Line share how they engage readers with news they can use in their daily lives; links they can use to fact-check information, and in-person community meetings to talk through the local issues that matter to them.
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It’s undeniable that the public — especially Gen Zs and Millennials — are turning away from the news, whether that’s from a lack of trust or a lack of interest.

Last year, the Reuters Institute found that more and more young people struggle with identifying trustworthy news sources.

This comes at a time when creators and influencers eclipse journalists and news organisations online, and as AI seeps into more aspects of content creation, according to the institute’s 2024 Digital News Report.

So how can journalists cut through the noise, and gain our audience’s trust?

The first line of defense against mis- and dis-information is hyperlocal publications, which reflect readers’ daily reality in their reporting.

Local journalists are uniquely positioned to build a solid foundation of trust by embedding in the communities they report with and for.

They’re able to relay factual, tangible information in relatable ways. They’re also best positioned to practice community engagement by seeking out and responding to their audience’s information needs.

But that’s no longer enough.

Despite the rise of community-driven journalism over the past decade, news fatigue is real. That’s understandable given the relentless stream of bad news — from climate disasters and genocide to starvation and the erosion of democracy — around the globe.

So, when news becomes stressful and alienating, what’s the role of journalism? And how do we deliver valuable and trustworthy information to a disengaged audience?

According to The Green Line publisher Anita Li in her Nieman Lab prediction for journalism last year, the answer is community engagement 2.0, which she describes as “levelling up community engagement best practices to encourage the public to move from engaging with the news to engaging with the world — that is, their neighbourhood, city, province/state, country — around them.”

That’s what our team does at The Green Line.

We’re an award-winning hyperlocal publication focused on producing information that’s useful and user-friendly, and helps people navigate day-to-day issues — such as responding to an eviction notice or finding affordable groceries nearby.

We skip the anxiety-inducing details. With our guides and tools, readers don’t have to trawl through a ton of text before getting to the nugget of information that actually helps.

It’s always right up front. For example, we recently put together an interactive map of free bathrooms and Wi-Fi spots across Toronto, videos decrypting the city’s most confusing underground walking routes and more.

Beyond mutual aid, when reporting on policy and systemic issues, we provide information to help people advocate for themselves through voting and other democratic processes.

For example, in our Ripple Effect newsletter, we include a “civic watchlist” of City Hall meetings that Torontonians can attend to share their views.

And through The Green Line’s Documenters Canada program, we bring the public in on our news-gathering workflow by training and paying community members to take notes at public meetings where municipal decisions are made.

It’s a balancing act between effecting broad policy change and addressing individuals’ immediate needs with small, but effective, solutions.

Through all our work, The Green Line never tells our audience what to do. Instead, we equip them with the knowledge to make decisions themselves — a skill that’s particularly important in a culture that dissuades critical thinking.

For example, alongside rigorous reporting, our team invites readers to “fact-check yourself.” Every article ends with a list of non-partisan, credible sources for those who want to dig deeper.

This was especially handy with two elections earlier this year.

The Green Line produced guides to party platforms that outline where the Liberal, Conservative, New Democratic and Green parties of Canada stand when it comes to our five pillars of livability: housing, jobs, food, commuting and health.

As always, we linked each and every source used to collect this information.

Finally, The Green Line meets our audience not just where they are in the virtual realm (through personable videos on TikTok, infographic carousels on Instagram and short docs on YouTube), but also IRL.

Almost every month, we host an event to bring together Torontonians to commiserate and brainstorm solutions around a particular problem, whether that’s navigating the cost of housing or finding third spaces in Toronto.

It’s part of our four-step theory-of-change model, the Action Journey, which we recently trademarked.

With every issue, our team rolls out an explainer breaking down a systemic problem in week one; we dive into existing solutions, and provide tools and guides, in week two; we meet and brainstorm in week three; then finally, we send crowdsourced, community-driven solutions back to everyone who participated in this month-long process.

Our intentional and friendly gatherings help people feel less alienated by their city’s problems.

We also invite community leaders and grassroots organisations that can offer resources to join us.

Most importantly, Torontonians get to develop relationships with other residents so they can support each other. In a world that’s becoming increasingly virtual, in-person connections are rare and valued.

Above all, The Green Line readers get to know us — and ultimately grow to trust us — so we can support them better.

By Yara El Murr (managing editor) and Anita Li (publisher), The Green Line

This article was commissioned as part of World News Day – a global campaign to highlight the value of journalism. It is organised by WAN-IFRA’s World Editors Forum, Project Kontinuum and The Canadian Journalism Foundation.
September 27, 2025
Journalism under siege
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It is getting harder every day to do the fundamental journalistic task of collecting facts and verifying information. It is also getting much more dangerous, writes Phil Chetwynd.
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In the first half of 2025, the climate facing journalists darkened to levels not seen in decades, reflecting a coordinated escalation of violence, intimidation, and censorship.

The fabric of societies is being torn apart by what in many cases are deliberate and calculated campaigns to undermine facts, the bedrock of our shared reality.

There is no need to prove things are untrue; you only need to relentlessly smear, sow doubt and float conspiracies. Often social media algorithms will do the rest.

For Agence France-Presse, an international news agency with a reporting team spread across the globe, the figures are stark: we had 25 serious incidents involving journalists working for us in the first six months of this year. That is more than occurred in the whole of 2024.

But these incidents of assaults, arrests, expulsions or journalists fleeing for their lives only hint at the full scale of the global assault on the public’s right to information.

The geographical spread of violence and intimidation is widening. The situation is aggravated by the rise of authoritarian practices and populist rhetoric that openly targets the press.

Law enforcement’s growing impunity – emboldened by prevailing political messages – has made physical assaults on journalists commonplace.

This is not a phenomenon isolated to so-called unstable regimes; it is surfacing in established democracies and countries with long traditions of press freedom, pointing to a dangerous shift in global norms.

Journalists have traditionally identified themselves at protests and public events, believing this identity carried some form of protection and legitimacy.

But we increasingly see these identifiers as targets.

Over the past year journalists working for us have been targeted in different and violent ways at protests in countries as varied as Turkey, Argentina and the United States.

All of them were clearly identified as press. All of them are convinced they were targeted because they were journalists.

In significant swathes of the world, journalism is effectively disappearing. The intimidation and threats have become unmanageable.

We have seen journalists working for us being forced to flee from across the Sahel area of West Africa and also in areas of Central America such as Nicaragua and El Salvador.

In parts of Eastern and Central Europe our fact-checkers face regular death threats and campaigns to intimidate and silence.

The message often comes from the top. The presidency in Argentina posted on social media last year: “We Do Not Hate Journalists Enough”. In total the Argentine Journalism Forum recorded 179 assaults on media workers in 2024.

And then there is Gaza.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) says nearly 200 journalists in Gaza have been killed over the past two years.

It points to over 20 incidents where it believes individuals were deliberately targeted.

Some of the journalists who work for AFP in Gaza refuse to wear their protective flak jackets because they fear it will make them a target. They also say people are scared to be near them because they think journalists are targets.

And yet perhaps what is most notable is how few governments in the many countries that have thrived on press freedom are prepared to raise their heads above the parapet to stand up for facts, truth and press freedom.

Many brave and dedicated journalists feel horribly alone at this point.

This assault on journalism and campaign to undermine facts comes as the management of our digital lives is increasingly transferring to powerful Generative Artificial Intelligence tools.

We can all see the astonishing capacities these tools have for knowledge building and human advancement, but we are also already seeing how they can be used to pollute our information ecosystem with vast amounts of false and made-up content.

This feels like an inflection point.

People talk casually about living in a post-truth world. Journalism is imperfect, it will not always get it right. But the honest aspiration to gather information and seek the truth is fundamental to the healthy functioning of our societies.

Now, more than ever, we need to stand up for facts.

There can be no alternative.

Phil Chetwynd is the Global News Director for Agence France-Presse (AFP).

This article was commissioned as part of World News Day – a global campaign to highlight the value of journalism. It is organised by WAN-IFRA’s World Editors Forum, Project Kontinuum and The Canadian Journalism Foundation.
September 26, 2025
The unseen truth about global trust in news
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Luba Kassova and Richard Addy argue that the widely repeated claim that global trust in news is in decline is misleading and overly shaped by the U.S. experience.
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Trust is the currency which makes democracies and societies function; the social glue that binds people and structures together.

Undermining trust in the governance system, in institutions, in media and between people is an early step in any authoritarian’s plan for destroying democracy.

Given that news media’s narrative about itself is important in shaping public opinion, it is noteworthy that for over a decade global news media has largely argued that trust in news is declining.

AKAS’ analysis of over 500,000 online news articles published since January 2020, using the GDELT global news database, revealed that terms emphasising declining trust in news featured six times more frequently than those suggesting stability or increased trust.

To test the collective wisdom further for World News Day, aimed at amplifying the value of fact-based journalism, we asked ChatGPT to summarise the global trend for trust in news in the last five years.

Its answer confirmed a negative lens, stating that global trust in news had generally declined due to sustained erosion driven by “misinformation, political polarisation and news avoidance.”

In short, this narrative of decline is among the least contested and most repeated beliefs in journalism. But is it true? To find out, we interrogated seven leading surveys covering news trends.

The analysis discovered that blanket statements about decline in global trust in news are inherently inaccurate and overly negative.

Whilst in the US, trust in news has collapsed since the 1970s, this is not reflected much in the rest of the world, especially in the last five years when trust in news has often risen. What this reflects instead is a tendency for media to project trends observed in the US as global phenomena.

Over the last decade the UK public’s trust in news media has been amongst the lowest.

However, since 2020 UK trust levels have stabilised or even crept up. Moreover, despite being low, Ipsos’ Veracity Index, corroborated by research from YouGov, shows that the UK public’s trust in journalists has risen from 23% in 2020 to 27% currently.

AKAS analysis of Reuters Institute’s Digital News Report (DNR), Edelman Trust Barometer, The World Values Survey and Eurobarometer shows two distinct trends in trust in news in the last decade, with the start of the Covid pandemic being a watershed moment.

Between 2015 and 2020 the trend in trust in news was inconclusive: two of the sources broadly showed a decline while the other two generally showed rises.

The global picture has been more positive in the last five years with all three sources measuring trust since 2020 showing stable or increasing public trust in news.

For example, in 2025 Edelman Trust Barometer reported an average trust in media of 52% across 28 countries – the highest ever recorded by Edelman.

Trust in news is amongst the highest in the Nordic countries. The DNR reveals that 67% of adults in Finland and 56% in Denmark trust news most of the time, with trust increasing by 11 and 10 percentage points respectively since 2020.

This success story gets lost in the prevalent yet unfounded negative narratives.

Rasmus Kleis Nielsen, Professor of Communication at the University of Copenhagen, highlights three factors contributing to the consistently high trust in Nordic media: higher trust levels between people in the region, greater trust in institutions, and a smaller proportion of people using social media as their main news source.

“The relatively stronger connection Nordic publishers have been able to earn and maintain helps underpin trust as, when it comes to news, people tend to trust outlets they routinely use,” concludes Nielsen.

The DNR and Edelman also show high trust in news in other countries since 2000 including in Nigeria and Kenya.

The 2025 DNR shows 68% of adults in Nigeria and 65% in Kenya trust the news most of the time, a 15-percentage point increase for Kenya since 2020.

Pamella Sittoni, Public Editor at The Nation Media Group in Kenya, attributes the rise in media trust in part to a history of credible private media considered relatively independent from state influence, and in part to a large population of educated young people who cross-check what they read on social media or websites by visiting traditional trusted sources.

“There’s been considerable reduction of trust in the government and even in the now fragmented religious groups, which has left the media as the key purveyor of truth,” she says.

Undoubtedly there is much that news media can do better to grow public trust, but the blanket claim that global trust in news is in decline is erroneous and plays into authoritarians’ plans to destroy trust in independent media.

To protect truth and democracy we must resist regurgitating unduly negative interpretations and just turn to the facts.

By Luba Kassova & Richard Addy

Luba Kassova is a media expert, researcher, journalist, and co-founder of AKAS, who covers social and media trends, democracy, AI and equality.

Richard Addy is a co-founder of AKAS, strategist, international media consultant, and a former chief advisor to the BBC’s Deputy Director General who ran BBC News.

This article was commissioned as part of World News Day – a global campaign to highlight the value of journalism. It is organised by WAN-IFRA’s World Editors Forum, Project Koninuum and The Canadian Journalism Foundation.
September 25, 2025
Times of darkness
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Our current environment of misinformation, mistrust, the spread of illiberal politics through influencer-style authoritarians, and the erosion of democratic norms, is “less an era of change than a change of era,” writes Fernando Belzunce.
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We live in times characterised by misinformation, yet many people are still unaware of what this entails. The context is one of confusion and mistrust, where, in addition, the transformations we are seeing are so rapid and so far-reaching that it is almost impossible to assimilate them or gauge their consequences.

This widespread bewilderment is being generated in a social climate of extreme polarisation, where powerful political forces, skilled at manipulating emotions, are capable of causing enormous instability through social media.

The proliferation of false information and the infodemic, that overwhelming and disorienting information overload, contribute significantly to this sense of fragility.

For all these reasons, and because of the events we are witnessing, one has the uneasy feeling that perhaps we are not experiencing an era of change – but rather, a change of era.

Contributing to this global climate of vulnerability is the successful expansion of illiberal political currents across dozens of countries, which make use of democracy itself to promote anti-democratic agendas.

The politicians involved are clearly following a shared playbook, inspired by the world’s most powerful man, who has globalised this strategy of misinformation.

A leader democratically elected just four years after his supporters staged an uprising against an election result.

An insurrection that had seemed inconceivable in the United States and which, a year later – as proof of the universal nature of this movement – was replicated in Brazil.

Populist and autocratic tendencies are influencing the new radical politicians and even those belonging to parties previously known for their moderation.

This is happening in Hungary, Poland, Israel, the Philippines, Turkey, El Salvador, Mexico, Argentina, Spain, France and Italy.

Hence the emergence of influencer-style leaders of this new doctrine cultivated on social media – the breeding ground for ruthless attacks against those who think differently – as well as the constant questioning of institutions, elected to represent the popular will, yet surprisingly accused of being enemies of the people.

Attacks on the justice system, for example, are frenzied. Likewise, the brutal smear campaign against the media and the attacks on many of its professionals, which are carried out with startling impunity.

All of this is happening simultaneously in many liberal societies. Is it really just a coincidence?

We are immersed in these dark times that in the future will be the subject of study.

The impact of major technological trends on journalism and democracies is huge, and it seems clear that this new turbulent environment encourages misinformation and weakens media firms, with no solution in sight.

Most of the world’s media outlets fell into crisis years ago, while multinational technology companies have achieved total market values exceeding the GDP of countries such as France, Spain or Italy.

Millions of people spend hours every day on social media platforms based on a business model that rewards lies and sensationalism driven by algorithms.

They are an open field for the dissemination of fake news and spin, as well as for the consolidation of polarisation and hatred.

Democracy is so ingrained in liberal societies that it appears to be safe from harm, which leads to a dangerous complacency as it lowers its guard.

But widespread geopolitical disorientation, together with unpredictable leadership and disregard for various international organisations, is shaking the very foundations of a universal system of values that has been accepted and respected for decades.

We take it for granted that, despite the criticism and the attacks, democracy will always endure, even though, as history shows, this is not necessarily the case.

This is demonstrated by recent events that previously would have seemed unthinkable, such as one sovereign country invading another in Europe, or a civilian population being subjected to a humanitarian catastrophe in the Middle East.

It is not security that is at stake in this predicament. Nor is it the economy. Nor immigration. Nor identity. It is democracy. Because this is about democracy.

And it is also about journalism, which is the profession that serves democracy and all citizens, and that is why it is the target of this global offensive.

Today, as we celebrate World News Day, seems the perfect time to remember the value and significance of journalism.

A flawed profession, its practitioners being people, it is the best system we know for providing societies access to professional, fact-based, accurate information that allows them to make decisions freely. As simple as it is significant.

It is an activity that also keeps a watchful eye on governments, companies and institutions, promoting plurality by offering different points of view and serving as a mouthpiece for people and causes that would otherwise be forgotten.

A tough, beautiful and necessary job.

Perhaps now more than ever. Because now that we know AI is going to transform our perception of reality forever and will undoubtedly contribute to the spread of misinformation, we want there to be people who are professionally dedicated to a craft based on verifying information, checking data, documenting facts, and travelling to the places where events are taking place to witness what is really happening there.

Because without journalism there is no democracy. And without democracy, darkness descends.

By Fernando Belzunce, Executive Editorial Director of Spanish media group Vocento and author of Journalists in Times of Darkness.

This article was commissioned to mark World News Day on September 28, a global news industry campaign.to highlight the value of journalism.
September 25, 2025
Global lessons from a press in peril
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Martin Baron posits that democracy cannot exist without a free press – and a free press cannot exist without democracy.
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Every year of my journalistic career of nearly half a century, I have known only a free and independent press in the United States.

My professional start was in the 1970s. Those were years when Americans could see clearly how the press served democracy:

With the publication of the Pentagon Papers, first by The New York Times, the American public learned of the failures its government had covered up during a long war in Vietnam that cost so many lives.

And then there was Watergate, an investigation spearheaded by The Washington Post. U.S. citizens learned how their president had weaponised the government against his political adversaries, abusing his powers and sabotaging the Constitution.

In the decades since those revelations, I took for granted that my country would always enjoy press freedom — and that the First Amendment of our Constitution would guarantee it. I no longer take any of that for granted.

I no longer assume that the constitutional order will hold in the United States. Or that the rule of law will prevail. Or that free expression – not just for the press, but for all Americans – will endure.

That is because we have a president who has demonstrated disdain for traditional restraints on his power.

Because a majority in Congress remains servile. Because a majority on the Supreme Court has handed this president extraordinary authority and immunity.

Because the president appears determined to lay siege to institutional pillars of democracy, with the press as a high-priority target.

And it is because those institutions are proving to be more fragile and faint-hearted than I imagined possible.

And perhaps most concerning to me is that we now live in a time when people are unable, or unwilling, to distinguish between what is true and what is false.

It is only natural — and, in a democracy, expected — that we will disagree about which policies are best.

Yet today we cannot agree on how to determine a fact.

All of the elements we have historically relied upon to establish facts — education, expertise, experience and, above all, evidence — have been denigrated, dismissed and denied.

How can democracy flourish, or even survive, when we can’t determine the most basic facts?

If democracy is in danger, a free press is, too. An independent press cannot survive without a democracy. And there is a corollary to that: A democracy cannot survive without a free press.

There has never been a democracy without a media that is free and independent.

The playbook of aspiring authoritarians is well-established. High on their to-do list is crushing the press, an institution that can shed light on what political leaders are up to and that might hold them to account.

Their repressive practices extend well beyond the press, however; they seek to abolish free expression altogether: The right of musicians, authors, artists, playwrights and screenwriters to express themselves as they wish.

The right of the public to listen to, see and read what they feel they should.

The right of business executives, academics, activists and political leaders to advocate for the policies they believe in.

The right of every one of us to speak freely with family, friends, neighbours and colleagues without fear of surveillance and reprisal.

The rights that the press strives to safeguard are no different from the rights most people want for themselves — the freedom to inquire into facts, to share what they’ve learned, to communicate what they believe.

Much more is at risk than the freedom to express opinions: The real target of autocrats is truth itself.

They aim to extinguish all independent arbiters of fact, whether they happen to be judges, scholars, scientists, statisticians or journalists.

In nations tilting toward authoritarianism, heads of state claim sole ownership of the truth. And they rig, suppress or erase data to advance their lies.

That is what is happening now in the United States. Facts are under attack while government demands that its fictions be unquestioningly repeated.

For decades, the United States was a bastion of free expression of all types, with constitutional protections seemingly secured. That is no longer the case.

We were a model for citizens in other nations who yearned for similar liberty. We no longer are.

We were a forceful champion for these freedoms elsewhere. Civil rights activists, democracy advocates and independent journalists worldwide often counted on our support when faced with repression.

They no longer can expect it.

In a famous 1941speech about four essential human freedoms, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt listed “freedom of speech and expression” as the very first.

And he pointedly added the words: “everywhere in the world.”

Today, with an aspiring autocrat as president, the United States is failing to embrace the freedoms that Franklin Delano Roosevelt considered indispensable for a better world.

Independent media was already in peril globally, a casualty of diminished confidence in democracy and the rise of a new generation of authoritarians.

Our president has placed the press worldwide – and freedom of expression generally – in even greater jeopardy.

What President Donald Trump and his allies contemptuously disregard is why the founders of the United States drafted the First Amendment to the Constitution.

James Madison was the principal author. And in describing the role of the press and of free expression, he spoke of the “right of freely examining public characters and measures.”

The word “examining” deserves special attention. Here is how the dictionary defines its meaning: “To inspect closely,” “to inquire into carefully/investigate,” “to test by questioning in order to determine progress, fitness, or knowledge.”

Apply that to journalists, and it means we are not stenographers. Nor should we be. We go behind the curtain and beneath the surface – to learn who did what and why, who will be affected and how, who influenced those decisions and with what intent.

The purpose of journalism, in my view, is to provide the public with the information it needs and deserves to know so that people might govern themselves. Embedded within that mission is a particularly high calling: Holding powerful individuals and institutions to account.

Those with power have the capacity to do enormous good. When they do, and when ordinary individuals do, we in the press should make that known. Praiseworthy efforts to improve society should be shared with others.

At the same time, some wrongs can be committed at extraordinary scale. Often the fault lies with those who possess disproportionate power, including the means to cover up their misdeeds.

Immoral or unlawful conduct can go undetected for years, or decades. Ordinary people can suffer severe harm. Victims are often ignored or muzzled.

So, the public has much at stake in the struggle for free expression and an independent press. People must have a right to voice their grievances. The media should be prepared to listen and investigate.

When there is grave wrongdoing, often no one but journalists will explore the facts. When there are no journalists to report on corruption, inevitably there is more of it, with ordinary citizens paying the greatest price.

When no independent media exists to draw attention, those who possess immense power seize the opportunity to acquire more. Their interests are served, the public’s needs are not.

As the U.S. government abandons the cause of freedom worldwide, my hope is that citizens in other countries now will become a model for Americans who took their own freedoms for granted.

They can show us how best to struggle against a repressive government. And in the difficult fight to uphold the fundamental democratic principles of free expression and an independent press, they can provide inspiration.

Martin Baron was executive editor of The Washington Post from 2013 to 2021, and previously held the top editor position at The Boston Globe and Miami Herald; under his leadership, these newsrooms won a total of 17 Pulitzer Prizes.

This article was commissioned to mark World News Day, a worldwide campaign highlighting the essential role of journalism in providing facts and clarity.
September 24, 2025
Shutting down the internet shuts down your Right To Know
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Winnie Kamau calls out the alarming global trend of governments shutting down the internet in times of political crisis, with 294 such shutdowns in 54 countries in 2024 – including 15 in Africa.
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On 28 September, the world marks both World News Day and the International Day for Universal Access to Information. For many African countries, these days have always been marked with a realm of hope but in the recent past, it is a reminder of a worrying trend.

When events become politically sensitive or socially tense, governments sometimes respond by shutting down the internet or silencing broadcasters, cutting off the audience; this action severs access to credible news precisely when the public’s need for it is greatest.

Misinformation and disinformation are rampant on social media platforms such as TikTok Live, which have become an alternative source of truth for many.

In Kenya on 25th June 2025, the Communications Authority (CA) ordered all media stations to cease live coverage of Gen Z-led protests, warning that non-compliance could result in their broadcast signals being switched off.

Reports and widely circulated social media images showed CA staff deactivating free-to-air signals and taking NTV and KTN transmission stations off-air.

This move silenced real-time reporting and public discussion during a critical moment in the nation’s democratic engagement.

Similarly, in Malawi, internet blackouts during protests have restricted information flow, limiting citizens’ access to trusted sources and journalists’ ability to report freely.

These shutdowns not only block access to facts but also create fertile ground for misinformation and rumours to spread, as people turn to unreliable sources in the absence of verified news.

The fundamental right to know, often referred to as the right to information or freedom of information, is a cornerstone of democratic societies and a universal human right.

It empowers individuals to access information held by public bodies, fostering transparency, accountability, and public participation in governance.

However, the reality in Africa starkly contrasts with global norms.

Only 55% of Africa’s population lives in countries with access to information laws, according to an Afrobarometer report.

This contrasts sharply with a global average of 91%, revealing a significant gap in legal protections for the public’s right to know. Eye on Global Transparency (EGT) notes that just 29 out of 55 nations on the African continent, including MENA countries, have such laws in place.

This imbalance has profound implications. Where such laws are absent or inadequately enforced, citizens are often denied the ability to scrutinise government actions, understand policy decisions, and hold their leaders accountable.

This lack of transparency can breed corruption, hinder good governance, and stifle the development of robust civil societies. It also restricts the ability of journalists, researchers, and civil society organisations to conduct their work effectively, limiting their capacity to inform the public and advocate for change.

The struggle for universal access to information in Africa transcends a mere legal battle; it is a pivotal fight for the very essence of democratic principles, the protection of fundamental human rights, and the acceleration of the continent’s socio-economic progress.

In an increasingly interconnected world, where information is power and a catalyst for development, restricting or denying access to the internet and other communication channels has far-reaching consequences that undermine these foundational pillars.

Advocating for universal access to information in Africa is a comprehensive endeavour that addresses legal frameworks, safeguards human liberties, and propels economic and social advancement.

It is about empowering individuals, strengthening institutions, and ensuring that the continent can fully realise its potential in the 21st century.

Internet and media shutdowns silence both citizens and journalists. Without connectivity or access to broadcasters, reporters cannot verify facts, share updates, or reach audiences.

Ordinary people cannot access trusted sources or share what they witness.

Shutdowns fuel misinformation. When official channels go dark, rumours and false information thrive, causing confusion, fear, and sometimes violence.

The shutdown playbook is spreading. From blocking social media platforms to cutting mobile data entirely and silencing broadcasters, these tactics are often justified as “security measures.”

But they are frequently used to hide election irregularities, police violence, or political unrest.

A new report from Access Now and the #KeepItOn coalition, Emboldened offenders, endangered communities: internet shutdowns in 2024, reveals a record 296 internet shutdowns across 54 countries in 2024.

Notably, Africa experienced its highest number of shutdowns ever recorded in a single year, with 21 incidents impacting 15 countries.

In moments of profound upheaval, the role of journalism transcends mere reporting; it becomes an indispensable lifeline, connecting communities to vital information and holding power accountable.

When governments resort to the drastic measure of blocking communication channels, they not only silence dissent but also sever this crucial link, plunging citizens into a vacuum of uncertainty and misinformation.

Yet, even in the face of such oppressive tactics, courageous journalists, driven by an unwavering commitment to truth, find alternative avenues to report and ensure that communities remain connected to reliable information.

To effectively push back against these alarming trends of internet shutdowns and communication blockades, a united front is essential.

International bodies, with their diplomatic leverage and human rights mandates, must work in concert with media organisations, who understand the intricate dynamics of information dissemination, and technology companies, the custodians of the very infrastructure being manipulated.

Together, we can exert significant pressure on governments to cease these disruptive practices and ensure that people remain connected to trustworthy news sources.

Because when the internet goes dark, or broadcasters are silenced, the space for accountability shrinks, allowing misinformation to flourish unchecked and leaving populations vulnerable to manipulation and exploitation.

The free flow of information is not a luxury; it is a necessity for a just and equitable world.

By Winnie Kamau, Kenyan based editor and data journalist.

This article was commissioned to mark World News Day, a worldwide campaign highlighting the essential role of journalism in providing facts and clarity.
September 24, 2025
You deserve the truth, not AI’s interpretation of it
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To understand the world around us we need reliable and rigorous reporting, with AI as a tool that amplifies such journalism rather than exploits and distorts it, writes Liz Corbin and Vincent Peyrègne.
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We all want to understand the world around us.

Perhaps we want more clarity about the war in Gaza, or what our government is doing about the healthcare our family relies on.

It might be something as simple as changes to a bus route that will affect our daily commute.

No matter how momentous or mundane the issue, we have a right to news we can trust.

We’ve all been there, scrolling our feed, seeing an astonishing clip, or a shocking must-share story. But now we must constantly question what’s real and what’s the creation of artificial intelligence.

AI-generated output is so convincing today and shaping so much of the information we consume that we risk being unable to trust anything anymore. And mistrust is the fuel that drives conspiracism, social polarisation and democratic disengagement.

In reality, the integrity of what we call ‘news’ is being eroded by the tools that are meant to help us make sense of the world.

This World News Day, we want to underline that the public are entitled to the facts that professional journalists and the organisations they work for worldwide are committed to finding, corroborating and sharing.

However, the tech companies building AI systems that millions of people use daily are falling far short of their responsibility to truth.

Original research carried out this year by the BBC found that half of AI-generated answers to news-related requests left out important details and made other key errors.

The AI assistants they tested consistently churned out garbled facts, fabricated or misattributed quotes, decontextualised information or paraphrased reporting with no acknowledgement.

So what? It’s useful and saves time, it’ll improve, we can live with the errors.

Except we’re not talking about a cake recipe or holiday recommendations. Democracy is at stake, because a society with no common understanding of what’s true can’t make informed choices.

And individuals who rely on a deceptive distortion of originally independent, accurate journalism risk losing themselves in a toxic mire of half-truths and bad-faith manipulation.

This isn’t faraway, abstract paranoia. The internet is already inundated with synthetic fakery designed to deceive, drive clicks, and promote vested interests.

AI-generated voices, faces, and headlines are degrading the information ecosystem, often with no clear provenance or accountability.

Meanwhile, the output of journalists serving the public interest, especially in local, regional, and independent media, is being scraped without permission, algorithmically repackaged and redistributed with no credit or compensation.

This phenomenon is arguably more pernicious than the glaring, outrageous deepfakes we have all seen because the inaccuracies are subtle, plausible and more likely to mislead.

We are witnessing the sabotage of news we need to be able to rely on, and that is draining already depleted reserves of public trust.

So, what can be done?

The European Broadcasting Union and WAN-IFRA, together with a fast-growing collective of other organisations representing thousands of professional journalists and newsrooms around the world, are calling for urgent changes to how AI developers interact with news and the people who produce it.

Many of the broadcasters and news publishers we represent are using AI responsibly to enhance their journalism without compromising editorial integrity, such as through automating translation, helping detect misinformation, or personalising content.

They are mindful that the deployment of these tools must be principled, transparent and carefully handled.

That’s why we are presenting five clear requirements to AI tech companies. These are not radical; they are realistic, common-sense standards that any ethical technology developer can and should embrace:
1. No content without consent. AI systems must not be trained on news content without permission. That content is intellectual property created through rigorous work and public trust. Unsanctioned scraping is theft that undermines both.
1. Respect value. High-quality journalism is expensive to produce but vital for society’s wellbeing. AI tools benefiting from that work must compensate its creators fairly and in good faith.
1. Be transparent. When AI-generated content feeds on news sources, those sources should always be clearly cited and linked because accuracy and attribution matter. We are entitled to know where information came from and if it differs from the original.
1. Protect diversity. AI tools should amplify pluralistic, independent, public interest journalism. A robust, healthy information environment requires a representative cross-section of voices.
1. Work with us. We invite AI companies to enter a serious, solutions-driven dialogue with the news industry. Together, we can develop standards for accuracy, safety, and transparency, but only if tech companies see journalists as partners, and not as suppliers of free data to be mined and monetised.
We consider this a civic challenge that affects every person who relies on credible information to make decisions about their life, to form credible opinions or decide whom to vote for.

Tech companies talk a lot about trust, but trust is not built on talk. We’re calling on the leaders of the AI revolution to get a handle on this problem now.

They have the power to shape the future of information, but we don’t yet see them taking their tools’ dangerous shortcomings, and the potential consequences of them, seriously enough.

Without urgent, corrective action, AI won’t just distort the news – it will destroy the public’s ability to trust in anything and anyone, which will be disastrous news for us all.

Liz Corbin is Director of News at the European Broadcasting Union (EBU), and Vincent Peyrègne is CEO of WAN-IFRA.

This article was commissioned to mark World News Day on September 28, a global news industry campaign.to highlight the value of journalism.
September 24, 2025
Regenerating the base layer of democracy: local news
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Jonathan Heawood argues that local news is the foundation of a healthy democracy, yet it has been weakened by political hostility, collapsing business models, and the rise of social media.
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This summer, the leader of Nottinghamshire County Council banned a local news outlet from engaging with any of his 40 elected representatives. Councillor Mick Barton of Reform UK also instructed council officials to stop sending press releases and event invitations to journalists at Nottinghamshire Live.

Why? Because these journalists had upset Barton with their coverage of his party.

When Reform UK’s leader, Nigel Farage, was asked about this at a US Congressional hearing, he came out with characteristic bluster about his absolute commitment to free speech whilst denying responsibility for the ban.

A few days later, Reform UK hosted a well-known anti-vaxxer at their annual conference. Challenged about the lack of scientific evidence for his claims, a party spokesperson told the BBC, ‘Reform UK does not endorse what he said but does believe in free speech.’

It might seem strange when a political party vigorously defends the freedom to spread falsehood whilst curtailing the freedom to tell the truth, but this is straight out of the populist playbook.

From Trump’s America to Orban’s Hungary and Modi’s India, authoritarian politicians are demonising journalists whilst eulogising fantasists. Every day, the bond between journalists and the public is stretched closer to breaking point – not that this relationship was in great health to begin with.

The internet disrupted the business model for local newspapers, forcing hundreds of titles to close, whilst social media gave the public the opportunity to make sense of things on their own terms.

At first, platforms like Twitter and Facebook looked like democracy in action: everyone had a voice, and everyone could enter the conversation.

We now know that this was a false promise. Social media makes some voices much louder than others, and these platforms are easily co-opted by politicians and activists for their own ends.

To ensure a truly democratic public sphere, we need to rebuild the base layer of democracy: local news.

Policymakers, philanthropists, investors and local news providers urgently need to take six steps to regenerate local news for the twenty-first century.

Firstly, local news needs to be demonstrably local. The more that reporters are visible in their communities, the more they will be trusted. If journalists are setting out to hold local politicians accountable, then journalists, too, need to be accountable. This is partly about independent and effective media regulation, but also about building relationships with the audience and exploring co-creational models of local news, where members of the community are actively involved in producing journalism.

Secondly, local news needs a sustainable business model. This probably means a blend of revenue streams, including subscriptions, donations and commercial partnerships, to avoid becoming dependent on any one source.

Thirdly, local news needs to operate in the public interest, with stories that clearly inform and empower local people – not clickbait about celebrities and national politics.

Fourthly, local news needs to keep innovating. A printed newspaper is still a fantastic way of telling the story of a local area, but it’s an alien artefact for many readers. If audiences prefer to engage with short videos, podcasts or email newsletters, then local news providers need to use these media.

This also means that policymakers must broker a new settlement between big tech and local news. The platforms might own the audience, but they don’t own the public sphere. It should be their legal responsibility to carry local news with due prominence, so that serious reporters can counterbalance the populists and fantasists with accurate, ethical and impartial journalism.

Fifthly, the people making local news need to resemble the people they’re representing. In the UK, the journalism workforce is disproportionately white and able-bodied, and the costs of higher education are a barrier to working class journalists. We need to diversify local news along every axis of identity.

Finally, local news needs to be engaging.

Local news will never become sustainable if it’s like the vegetables we’re supposed to eat but just can’t stomach. Local news has got to be a tasty mix of great stories and genuinely useful information.

The people who want to destroy democracy are working hard to undermine local news. But we won’t restore democratic norms simply by telling people that local news is good for them. To coin a phrase, we need to make local news great again.

The good news is that there are pioneering journalists reinventing local news around the world.

They urgently need access to patient capital to build models of local news that are accountable, sustainable, in the public interest, innovative, representative and engaging.

It’s not too late to regenerate local news. But time is running out.

By Jonathan Heawood, Executive Director of the Public Interest News Foundation.

This article was commissioned as part of the World News Day campaign to highlight the value of journalism.
September 23, 2025