World News Day urges trust in ethical journalism

World News Day is observed annually on September 28 to celebrate fact-based journalism, promote media literacy and highlight the essential role of trusted news in society.

This year’s theme is: “Know the facts. Understand what matters. Choose Trusted Journalism.”

According to National Press Club chairperson Antoinette Slabbert, World News Day is important as it offers an opportunity to reflect on the importance of reliable, ethical and trustworthy news from verifiable sources which is important in a world where the truth can be difficult to find and people are bombarded with information, but a lot of it cannot be trusted.

“Journalists must stick to the basic principles of ethical and professional conduct and be factual and fair. They cannot rebuild trust alone though It will require equal commitment from editors and media and platform owners.”

For the African Media and Communicators Forum, World News Day is not simply a celebration of journalism; it is a call for journalists, editors, media owners and communicators to renew their commitment to accuracy, ethics, accountability and public-interest journalism.

“World News Day is an important reminder that journalism remains a public service and that facts matter, particularly at a time when audiences are confronted with an unprecedented volume of information,” said Elijah Mhlanga, chairperson of the forum.

Mhlanga said the biggest challenges facing African journalism today were newsrooms which were under enormous financial pressure where advertising was moving to digital platforms, audiences were increasingly consuming news through social media and video platforms and many traditional news organisations were operating with smaller teams and fewer resources.

“This creates a dangerous cycle when newsrooms have fewer resources, it becomes harder to invest in investigative journalism, fact-checking, training and community reporting — precisely the things that distinguish professional journalism from unverified content. We have to produce better, more relevant and more trusted journalism, while finding sustainable business models that allow African journalism to survive and serve the public,” said Mhlanga.

The South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) expressed concern about the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in newsrooms and urged newsrooms to be vigilant and not allow its rapid growth to replace humans in newsrooms.

“Newsrooms should regard AI as a means to enhance systems and news coverage, and not entirely depend on it,” said Sanef director Reggy Moalusi.

The forum said AI was already changing African journalism, and believed journalists should approach it neither with fear nor with blind enthusiasm.

There are legitimate opportunities such as AI assisting journalists with transcription, translation, data analysis, research, summarisation and other time-consuming tasks.

In a continent with multiple languages and large underserved communities, AI could potentially help news organisations produce journalism in more languages and reach audiences that have historically been excluded. But there are serious risks that should never be overlooked.

“There is also an economic question: if AI systems increasingly summarise journalism without adequately supporting the organisations that produce the original reporting.

“We need to ask how public-interest journalism will be financed. So AI is not a future issue for African journalism. It is a present issue.” Mhlanga said.

Vukosi Baloyi, a journalism lecturer from the Tshwane University of Technology, said students were using AI to come up with story ideas and do research. However, students did not seem to understand that AI had its limitations in producing convincing but inaccurate content or information.

“We have a huge responsibility of teaching students: how to use AI ethically, critically and transparently. Media and information literacy should no longer be treated as an additional topic,” Baloyi said.

Baloyi said AI needed to be embedded throughout the journalism curriculum.

“With the rapid rise use of AI even in higher institutions, students should repeatedly verify information and their sources, always avoiding to take everything at face-value,” Baloyi concluded.