World Press Freedom Day highlights the vital role of journalism in protecting democratic values and fostering informed societies.
Since its inception in 1993, it has served as a platform to celebrate the principles of press freedom, reflect on the challenges faced by journalists worldwide, advocate for independence and safety of media professionals, and honour journalists who have lost their lives in pursuit of truth.
The theme for this year’s World Press Freedom Day is “Reporting in the Brave New World: The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Press Freedom and the Media.” AI is transforming journalism, providing tools that enhance investigative reporting, content creation and fact-checking. It allows for greater efficiency, multi-lingual accessibility and improved data analysis.
However, these advancements also bring risks such as generating misinformation and disinformation, deep fake technology, biased content moderation, and surveillance threats to journalists.
AI’s role in the media business model raises concern about fair remuneration for journalistic content and media viability. It is imperative for stakeholders to ensure that Artificial Intelligence (AI) strengthens rather than undermines press freedom and democratic values. Hence, the need for all stakeholders, including journalists, policymakers, media professionals, and civil society actors, to come together to explore these complex issues on a day like this.
While the principles of free, independent, and pluralistic media remain crucial, AI’s impact on information gathering, processing, and dissemination is profound, presenting both innovative opportunities and challenges.
AI offers potential to enhance freedom of expression by democratizing access to information, empowering global communications, and changing the reality of the flow of information around the world.
This year’s World Press Freedom Day aims to explore AI’s impact on press freedom and the right to freedom of expression, as well as addressing the continued relevance of information as a public good.
AI is transforming the fundamental right to seek, impart, and receive information, as well as journalism. It enhances access to information and processing it, thereby enabling journalists to handle and process vast amounts of data efficiently and create content more effectively.
AI tools can improve fact-checking, data visualization, local and multiplatform adaptation of news content and its translation, streamlining the journalistic process and making information more engaging and accessible.
AI also presents risks. It can be used to reproduce misinformation, spread disinformation, amplify hate speech—especially online—and enable new forms of censorship.
AI provides both opportunities and challenges for women journalists. AI can support victims of gender-based violence by streamlining reporting tools and enhancing fairness in digital spaces.
These advancements could reduce barriers to reporting abuse and enable faster responses. However, AI also amplifies existing risks for women journalists in the digital landscape.
AI offers media outlets tools to increase efficiency through task automation, helping newsrooms meet growing demands and remain competitive.
However, the financial sustainability of media is becoming more fragile as generative AI platforms repurpose journalistic content without proper compensation, diverting revenue from independent outlets to digital platforms.
On election and democratic processes, AI is increasingly influencing the integrity of elections, offering tools for fact-checking and combating disinformation while empowering journalists and voters to promote informed democratic participation.
However, it poses risks as generative AI enables the creation of misleading content like deepfakes, undermining trust in democratic institutions.
Addressing these challenges requires collaboration among governments, media, and civil society.
Objectives of World Press Freedom Day, 2025:
1. Reaffirm the universal commitment to freedom of expression and press freedom.
2. Explore AI’s effects on media pluralism, diversity, and independence.
3. Assess AI’s impact on news and media content creation and dissemination.
4. Encourage media to make ethical use of AI systems in their operations.
5. Strengthen collaboration between media stakeholders.
6. Support enabling environments for media to report effectively on the benefits and harms of AI.
7. Encourage global cooperation for journalists’ safety.
8. Support media integration of AI focusing on viability and representation.
9. Emphasize the importance of information integrity on AI impacts.
10. Promote media and information literacy skills to strengthen critical thinking and competencies needed to understand the use and implications of AI.
Gbemiga Bamidele, Ph.D
Convener, Society for Journalism Enhancement Initiatives (S4JEI)
