Advancing Information Integrity: Global Learning Through African Experiences

Welcome to this side event on the margins of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly on advancing information integrity, global learning through African experiences. We are grateful for your presence here today. Please remember to share the link. We have a webcast link that should go out so others can join us online. On behalf of the government of the Republic of Ghana, the Information Services Department, the Government Communications Office of the Republic of Ghana, the Media Freedom Coalition, and the International Fund for Public Interest Media, who have been generously funding all the monetary requirements for this session. Please give them a warm applause for me. Thank you for being generous and being concerned enough to ensure that this event happens. Welcome to all of you. We live in a world today where the information ecosystem has become more sensitive than ever. There has never been a time when information has moved faster than we have it today, with varying impacts on different demographics, with a lot of concerns on different societies. How do we protect the information ecosystem? These are some of the big questions today. How do we confront false information? How do we protect independent journalism? And how do we build information ecosystems that people can trust? And how do we harness all these new technologies for benefit and less negative impact? We need to ensure that responses to disinformation do not undermine the freedom of expression and media freedom. But what can the world learn from African experiences? These are some of the questions we are going into today's discussion with. Without wasting much time, I would like to call on Ms. Laura Risnen, who is the Vice Minister of Social Security of Finland. to deliver the opening remarks for this session.

Thank you, Honourable Minister, Excellencies, distinguished delegates and panellists, ladies and gentlemen here and also online. It's a great honour and privilege to deliver the opening remarks for this important event today. At the outset, let me extend my warmest gratitude also to the government of Ghana, the International Fund for Public Interest Media, and all partners for organizing this timely dialogue. As co-chair of the Media Freedom Coalition together with United Kingdom, Finland is pleased to support this discussion and to work with partners to promote media freedom and strengthen information integrity globally. This conversation could hardly be more relevant than it is here today during the UN General Assembly week. Information integrity has become one of the defining challenges of our time. The rapid spread of misinformation, disinformation and AI generated content affects democratic processes, erodes public trust and undermines security and social cohesion across the world. It's true to all of us. The challenges are global in nature, and our responses must be informed by diverse regional experiences and strengthened through international cooperation. This is precisely why today's multi-stakeholder discussion is so important. The United Nations Global Principles for Information Integrity were launched in 2024, so two years ago. and the objective is to help governments, technology companies, media organizations, civil society, and other stakeholders to strengthen the integrity of the global information ecosystem while protecting human rights, including freedom of expression. The erosion of information integrity can undermine people's ability to exercise basic human rights and hamper efforts to achieve peace, prosperity, and a livable future in our planet. While digital technologies create extraordinary opportunities, they can equally be used to manipulate public debate and amplify harmful content at an unprecedented scale and speed. For Finland, information integrity is fundamentally linked to societal resilience and comprehensive security. A resilient society is not only built through institutions and infrastructure, It is also built through informed and engaged citizens. Citizens who can critically access information, distinguish fact from fiction, and participate confidently in democratic debate. This is why media literacy has long been a priority in our school curricula. As the UN principles highlight, around one third of the world's population is still offline, while many new internet users lack the skills and tools needed to engage safely and critically with digital information. Strengthening media, information, and digital literacy is therefore not only merely desirable, it's a democratic imperative. Excellencies, We must also recognize the impacts of information manipulation are not experienced equally. Women and girls are disproportionately targeted by technology-facilitated gender-based violence and abuse, which can silence voices, undermine participation in public life, and reverse hard-won progress toward gender equality. We have heard many examples of this also during this week. Protecting information integrity is therefore also about safeguarding inclusion, equality and the ability of all people to participate fully in society. Furthermore, information integrity cannot exist without independent, free and pluralistic media. Journalists and media workers must be able to work safely and public interest journalism must remain sustainable in a rapidly changing digital environment. In closing, Let me express my sincere appreciation for Ghana, for its leadership, to our colleagues from the United Kingdom for the excellent partnership we have enjoyed as co-chairs of the Media Freedom Coalition, and to all those whose commitment and support have made today's event possible. I look forward to today's discussion and to the valuable insights that African and global experiences can bring as we work together to foster a more trusted, inclusive, and resilient information ecosystem. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Vice Minister. I would like to now turn to the keynote address of today's event, and for that, it's my pleasure to introduce crusader for correct information. A man who spends his day fighting misinformation, disinformation, while trying to communicate government policy as prudently as possible. I would like to call upon my boss, the honorable minister of government communications of the Republic of Ghana, honorable Felix of.

Thank you very much, Nong. Let me at the outset indicate that I would have loved to stay through this program with you. But as you can imagine, I'm on the delegation of the president of Ghana. And there are several engagements that he has this afternoon. So I have to peel off briefly to be here with you because of the importance of this program. So I have a very brief message to give, after which I would crave your indulgence to rejoin him. for a number of meetings and I'll leave you in the able hands of my director of mission services department who will represent me well. So with that understanding, I'll proceed to read. Excellencies, distinguished guests, colleagues, ladies and gentlemen, information integrity has become one of the most present challenges of our digital age. Misinformation, disinformation, and AI generated content are increasingly undermining public trust, democratic participation, and media freedoms. The international community has recognized the urgency of this challenge. The launch of the UN Global Principles for Information Integrity in June 2024 provided an important framework for collective action. Ghana has also joined the Paris Declaration on Multilateral Action for Information Integrity and Independent Media, reaffirming our commitment to this global effort. Ghana's strong belief in forging strategic partnerships to advance information integrity courses evidenced in this high level side event being co-convened by the government of Ghana, the Media Freedom Coalition, and the International Fund for Public Interest Media. For Africa, however, this conversation must go beyond vulnerability. Our continent is not only experiencing the challenges of information disorder, we are also developing innovative and practical responses. Ghana's experience demonstrates the value of partnership. Through collaboration among government, civil society, and communities, we are connecting policy, institutional capacity, and community action. At the community level, initiatives such as the Caravan of Hope, delivered with district assemblies and civil society partners, take media and information literacy directly to communities using local languages. At the international level, at the institutional level, I beg your pardon, The Information Services Department is strengthening officers' capacity in verification techniques, including lateral reading, reverse image search, and deepfake detection, while supporting multilingual tools such as Kasagadi.ai. At the policy level, Ghana is contributing to efforts to address disinformation. All right, sorry. I hope it's better now. All right. At the policy level, Ghana is contributing to efforts to address disinformation through the Open Government Partnership National Coalition on Disinformation, bringing government and civil society together around a shared framework for action. These experiences reflect a wider African reality. Across the continent, innovation is meeting citizens where they are, on WhatsApp, through radio, and in local languages. They demonstrate that multi-stakeholder collaboration can produce practical solutions to information disorder. Yet, challenges remain. Independent public interest media, particularly community and local language media, remain essential to reaching citizens and strengthening trust. At the same time, artificial intelligence presents both opportunities and risks. We must embrace its potential while strengthening media literacy, transparency, responsible innovation, and appropriate safeguards. This side meeting provides an opportunity to move from commitments to practical action and to identify African and global solutions that can be supported and scaled. Let us reaffirm a simple principle. People cannot meaningfully participate in democracy, development, or public life without access to information they can trust. Ghana stands ready to work with all partners to build information ecosystems that are trusted, inclusive, independent, and resilient. Let us move from principles to practice and from commitments to delivery. I thank you very much for your attention. And as I indicated, there's an urgent meeting that I need to go back to with my principal. So I'll leave you in the able hands of Dr. Nafisa Mahama, who is the head of Ghana's Information Service Department and a key player in the effort to tackle disinformation and misinformation. I thank you all.

Thank you, Honourable Minister. We're very grateful for your time. Thank you for coming and thank you for exposing the impact of disinformation on democracy and democratic activities. And also to Madam Laura Resnan, the Honourable Laura Resnan, for exposing the unequal gendered impact of disinformation on our society. Thank you, honorable minister. At this point, I would like to hand over the discussion to our able and experienced moderator, who is the Deputy Permanent Representative of Ghana to the United Nations. And he will be expertly guiding us through the panel discussion and the question and answer segment of this discussion. He will also introduce to you our distinguished panelists and take us into a conversation focused on solutions. Ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to introduce Mr. Ben Duche Malo.

Thank you. Thank you, Nwong. Shall I say merci to French speakers? And Kito, that's Finnish for thank you. we we don't want to stay on too many thank yous here but I just want to once again thank everyone of us to be here. Number two, what we are doing here today is deeply significant. We are recording this. Somebody is going to pick a nugget from here. So, whatever we say here carries a lot of import and will make a lot of impact. Excellencies, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen, We are not gonna have a panel discussion for 45 minutes, and then we will open the floor for every one of us here to have an opportunity to either ask a question or make a comment for us to imbibe or to learn from. So what is the objective right now? A lot of, I heard the word public trust, erosion of trust, even security, democracy under threat, misinformation, disinformation, AI use. I don't know about you, but when I hear about AI, I feel as if somebody is saying there is a train coming. There's a train coming at me, I should move from the train tracks. Sometimes I'm not quite sure what speed this train is coming at, whether it's a benevolent train or it's a vicious, nasty train that is going to kill all of us in 10 years, according to some experts. And the whole issue of AI and how it's affecting even trust in one another in terms of the information we use, it's very, very significant. And so what we hope to do in the next 45 minutes, are there some concrete actions tried and tested solutions. Maybe using a small environment that can be replicated in the way we move forward so that AI can help us and these issues of misinformation, disinformation can be addressed. Four categories in the panel. We have experts in the area of misinformation and disinformation. We have people from the government side. Dr. Nafisa is here. We have colleagues from the CSOs and NGOs, and we have journalists or people from the independent media. What must we do? What actions must we all take? What are the solutions? Let me introduce the distinguished panel. Catherine Amirfar. is deputy co-chair for the High-Level Panel of Legal Experts. Catherine is co-chair of the De Bevois International Dispute Resolution Group and the Public International Law Group, and also a member of the firm's management committee. Her practice focuses on public international law, international commercial and treaty arbitration, and complex international commercial litigation. And next, we have Mr. Churchill, not Winston, but Mr. Churchill Otieno. This is the Churchill of Africa, president of the Africa Editors Forum, TAEF or TAEF. Churchill believes that the efficacy of solutions to Africa's problems lies in homegrown innovations. We want to learn from you. Habari. Okay, Karibu. Then we have Jodi Ginsburg, Chief Executive Officer, Committee to Protect Journalists. This is a group I've had some friends work with for many years. Jodi is the Chief Executive Officer of the Committee to Protect Journalists. A journalist by profession, she joined CPJ in 2022 from Internews Europe. Nice to have you here. You are welcome. Then we have to my right here, Mr. Macmeed Kamara. He embarrassed me recently by reminding me that he used to listen to me when I was making a lot of noise on the BBC, but I forgive you. He's the Regional Director for Africa for the International Fund for Public Interest Media, IFPIM. He's a Sierra Leonean human rights leader, democracy advocate, and a development communications practitioner with more than 20 years expertise and experience, we will come to you for your knowledge and your wisdom. And last but not least, the man who has taken the minister's place, Dr. Winifred Nafisa Mahama. She has a tough job in Ghana because she's fighting many demons on the misinformation front. acting director for the Information Services Department of Ghana. She has over 20 years expertise in strategic communications, policy engagement, and public sector information management. Dr. Nafisa Mahama, you're welcome. So we will begin with some questions that I hope our panelists will be more than willing to help us with. And this question, the first one, can be taken by any member of the panel. Let's quickly highlight the key threats to information integrity today. If you can just make this real for me as I'm seated here or we are all watching online, how are new technologies, especially AI-generated content, changing misinformation and information manipulation. And this can go to anybody on the panel who would like to tackle it first. Maybe I should have a prize for the person who takes the first bite at the cherry. Wonderful.

I'm always happy to go for a prize. Excellent. Thank you so much, and it's an honor to be here speaking to you today. I think we at the Committee to Protect Journalists would highlight four elements that are threats to information integrity. We've heard some of them already. Of course, the mis- and disinformation that's deliberately spread by governments and other politically motivated actors, those that are positioned to influence large swathes of the population, either directly or through proxies. And especially from our perspective, that mis and disinformation that is targeted deliberately towards those whose job it is to provide trustworthy and fact-based information, academics, scientists, and of course, journalists, and where we notice that an area of particular concern, of course, is often around elections. So that's the first. The second would be then the amplification and mass distribution of that mis- and disinformation. And this is where, of course, platforms, technological platforms, play a key role. It is not just the existence of the false information, it's the speed at which it can spread and how fast and deep that mis- and disinformation goes. So that's number two. The third, I think, that we would identify is just overwhelm. When you have that amount of information coming at you, it is extraordinarily difficult for people to understand and discern what is true and what is real. And of course, that is rendered more and more complicated now through the overlay of AI, where it is very difficult for the ordinary consumer of information to understand whether an image they receive or a news article they read is true or is something that has either been deliberately manipulated through AI or which, in fact, AI is hallucinating for itself. And finally, from our perspective, the fourth one that I would like to highlight is attacks to journalists and journalists themselves. Attacks on journalists and journalism causes the public to doubt the information that journalists gather and disseminate. It creates deliberate confusion and it allows those in power to control the narrative and the information that the public receive. But also, and I think this is a key point, as my colleague Julie Pacetti, who is sitting over there, has shown in her research, it drives individuals out of the industry, especially women and those from marginalized communities. And I want to give you all for a specific example of how this all overlays together. So just this week in Poland, police launched an investigation after a TV journalist was subjected to a torrent of online abuse after Twitter's AI, which is called Grok, mistakenly identified her as a journalist who'd asked a question that had caused some controversy during a press conference of a defense minister. And that's how we see all of these things coming together. AI, mass dissemination, misinformation, targeting of journalists. And make no mistake, journalists are under threat globally like never before. At the Committee to Protect Journalists, we're recording record numbers of journalists in prison, record numbers of journalists killed, and that has a devastating impact on societies. It makes societies less safe, less secure, less healthy. Democracy declines, costs rise, the cost of doing business rises because corruption flourishes. And of course, to conclude, at a time of climate crisis, a lack of credible information puts populations in immediate and present danger, unable to take the preventative and emergency measures they need to keep safe through extreme climate events. So Those are the main threats we see. Of course, the implications are much more broad, but I think this is a time when we need to take serious action and move from discussion and deliberation to action.

Thank you, Jodie Ginsberg, determined to protect journalists.

And get a prize.

And get a prize. Oh, you got the prize.

That's so important, then.

Shall I hand over my phone to her? This is wonderful. Thank you for setting the tone beautifully. I'm going to go right now to Catherine Amirfar, and then I will come to MacMead Kamara. And we'll keep it short, short. I am learning something because I was tempted to find out the number of journalists who were attacked and killed. A lot of us follow what has happened even in war zones, for example. You mentioned the attack on journalists. The overwhelming, speedy nature of the information, so much coming at us that we don't have time. When I was at the BBC, two sources, and then you believe that the information being shared is solid. If you go to CNN, you go to Reuters, BBC, Deutsche Welle, but now beyond that, there is another dimension altogether. And then the amplification and the mass distribution. So, Catherine Amira, Deputy Chair, High Level Panel of Legal Experts on Media Freedom, the threats. And then briefly to Mahmoud Kamara.

Thank you very much. It's a pleasure to be here. So, obviously, from the perspective of the High Level Panel of Legal Experts, the information integrity is and has been a priority issue. And for good reason. You can think of it not just as a threat to truth telling, but it's the truth discernment. It's the ability to actually understand what is going on in the world around us. And when truth becomes malleable or up for manipulation by the highest bidder or the one that can afford the most advanced AI, What you have is a phenomenon that Nobel Laureate Maria Ressa refers to as an infection of the information ecosystem. And like all infections, this threat has a particularly toxic effect on the most vulnerable communities by degrading faith in public institutions and undermining the basic trust that binds our communities. So as technology develops, so do the threats. And that's what I wanted to focus on, because make no mistake, we are in a crisis of disinformation. So the first is the scope of the problem. This is the train that you posit. The train is indeed coming. And I will say there's no question as to its speed. It's high speed. It's at the highest speeds. And the conversation typically focuses on the role of AI in creating content, fake content, deep fakes, in amplifying the efforts of cyber trolls. But there's more to it. This summer, US AI labs disclosed several incidents related to AI agents. For those not yet familiar, AI agents are built with more autonomy than chatbots. They don't just respond to questions. They can set goals, devise plans, and carry out actions across multiple systems. So for instance, an AI agent can search the web, extract information, write a report, and send it to your inbox without direction. Some can even monitor conditions, anticipate needs, and initiate tasks proactively. So what did we learn this summer? We learned that an AI agent that was supposed to be operating in a controlled environment escaped. It hacked a firm hugging face, and it was later confirmed to be from OpenAI. In another case, OpenAI agents used a public wiki to discuss ways to bypass ethical and security controls and break into company systems, violating all the rules that they were programmed to adhere to. In response, there was an investigation leading to a detailed public report. And what we've learned is an assessment of four separate cases that showed us that agents attacked their own internal servers. They've attacked external servers. And they did all of this by ignoring prime directive rules that were supposed to be programmed, by conspiring with each other, and by learning how to lie and cheat, so did so without any transparency. This has caused some to postulate that AI agents rogue on the internet are changing not only the way that information appears on the internet, but also changing the structure of the ecosystem itself, including the insertion of commands that can be seen only by other AI agents. So we have a situation when it comes to the information landscape and information integrity where the impact is almost immeasurable because it relates not just to what we've been talking about, cyber trolls, disinformation, but also a system in which directives to AI agents are not transparent to us, but nonetheless, fundamentally transforming the way that we get information. So as deputy chair of the high level panel, as you can imagine, the intersection of AI and legal norms that are designed to protect media freedom is at the top of our agenda and the scope of work going forward. And then second, very briefly, I just wanted to address a key picture of the truth telling, which is the use of cyber surveillance technologies against journalists. And this is also, this includes no click technology like Pegasus, which I'm sure many in the room recognize. You may remember that Jamal Khashoggi faced digital surveillance before he was murdered. This is a very real weapon and it's being used to target hundreds, if not thousands of journalists, and it's been documented. The effect of this surveillance on a journalist's right to report freely cannot be underestimated, the impacts on information integrity are dire. Targeting journalists compromises confidential sources, chills investigative reporting, and undermines the ability of the press to report without interference. The information environment suffers as matters of essential importance go unreported. So as set out by the Vice Minister, and I'll end with this note, the High-Level Panel has focused its recommendations on how states can combat cyber technologies that are used to target journalists, including recommendations necessary to address the reality that the Vice-Minister referred to, which is that women have been disproportionately targeted by cyber technology tools. They are faced sexualized harassment as a form of intimidation, and when women journalists self-censor following attacks, it undermines media plurality and has a damaging effect on the information available to all of us. And since we know that gender-based violence is more likely to have visibility in the news if the reporter's a woman, when spyware is used to gendered attacks on women, we know it can turn and have a gendered impact on the information environment. So there's the train and I'll leave it there for now.

Somebody tell me the train can be slowed down and managed. Thank you, Catherine Amirfar. I want to just quickly acknowledge the presence here of Ambassador Kate Foster, who is the Deputy Permanent Representative of the United Kingdom to the United Nations. You're welcome. It's good to see you here. And I want to pivot quickly because part of our theme is saying African experiences, learning from African experiences, global learning from African experiences. Our two colleagues here, Macmeed Kamara Churchill Otieno, you have been working very hard on these aspects. What examples can you share about successful collaboration maybe between government, media, civil society, tech companies, or even international organizations in addressing misinformation and disinformation, then strengthening trust in the information ecosystem. Maybe the two of you can briefly tackle this, give us hope that there is a way forward.

Thank you very much, Ben. Okay. Thank you very much, Ben. So, as Ben mentioned, the International Fund for Public Interest Media operate actually to unlock some of these solutions and opportunities that are there. The solutions are there. I think that's one thing we need to be mindful of. It is about how we open the solutions and scale them. And this is what the International Forum for Public Interest Media does, which is why we collaborate with the first international organization, the first multilateral mechanism that works with governments, with journalists, and different players in the industry to advance information integrity and to take advantage of the opportunities and innovation that are happening across countries in low-- societies in low and middle income countries. Now, just one quick threat that came out from our end that we are seeing at the fund and for which we are looking for solutions and actually pulling out opportunities. The issue of finances. Now, we know, as has been mentioned by Jody and by Catherine and the ministers, the political threats are there, the technological threats are there, but there's also a huge element of the financial threats. Now, a lot of media houses are closing down. They are shutting down because they cannot pay salaries to journalists. They cannot even buy fuel for countries. I come from Sierra Leone. There are some stations that cannot even buy fuel to run and operate. I'll give one story which actually links in response to your question, Ben, of a district in my country in Sierra Leone where a politician has taken advantage of the fact that the media, the community media outlet there does not have the money to run, to broadcast. So the station shuts down. What the politician did was to actually buy his own station, bought a transmitter, bought generator. So the station only comes on when the politician is in town on weekends. And then he's the one who speaks for four hours nonstop. Nobody questions, nobody interviews him, and he goes on and on and on. And so what the people did was to set up their own and find ways to kind of cooperative. But we took an opportunity that emerged from a meeting that the government of Sierra Leone and the Sierra Leone Association of Journalists had and develop a national action plan. And that action plan recommended that the National Fund for Public Interest Media should be constituted and established. And we took advantage of that opportunity, worked with this national fund for public interest media, and this fund gave its first set of grants just last year and this year to 14 different outlets. As a result, that district, which only had this politician who comes on weekends to pour out his own position, now has a counter media outlet in that same district that provides credible information. So that's just one example of opportunities that are there. The second one, briefly, before I hand over to Churchill, is in Ivory Coast. Again, another outlet that we are supporting called Alert Info, taking advantage of WhatsApp. So this is the hybridization of credible information from journalists using channels that are heavily used by young people and by societies, which is WhatsApp, to transmit credible information to counter mis- and disinformation. So these are the opportunities that IFPIM has been supporting. And there are more, but we'll come back to that and I'll hand over to Churchill to provide additional information.

Churchill Uchieno, we will get the light to turn red for you then. we can begin to fire some questions at you. Excellent. So, Churchill, you are the president of the New Humanitarian? You're still with the-- and I have to-- But in this hat-- You're wearing a different hat today. I wanted to say that I am a big-time consumer of the New Humanitarian.

Thank you.

But don't charge me yet. Yeah, I have to pay for-- Tell him, please. Mark made will pay.

Yeah.

So we are again looking at the realities on the ground in your job as a digital journalist, president or executive director of the Africa Editors Society. Share some of your experiences and workable solutions with us.

Thank you. I thank the government of Ghana and the Media Freedom Coalition and IFPEM for getting us together here for this conversation. I see many friends around the room, Gypsy and Judy. I must say that we are here because misinformation and disinformation, including AI-generated content, are eroding public trust. No need to repeat that. False claims, as we see across the continent through our journalists, inflame tensions, distort public debate, and make it harder for people to distinguish reliable information from manipulation. The damage is especially serious where media freedom is under pressure and journalists lack the resources or protection to respond. As you sit here today, 332 journalists are in jail across the world, and 67 of them are in jail in Africa. That just shows the price journalists are having to pay for the truth. Each number represents a person in prison for doing work the public depends on, which is seeking facts, asking questions, and bringing the truth to light. What a price we have to pay. When journalists are silenced, the public is left more vulnerable to manipulation and to abuse. Our task, as we see it, as editors and journalists, is to turn shared concern into practical action. And in the last few years, we've done exactly that. In collaboration with IFM, we've had a series of conversations across the global south, known as the Control Plus J, to look at how the value that journalism creates can be reinvested in making journalism a lot more solid. But also other processes are going on. We have the Media20 process, which is bringing together news media across the world to see how we can deal with the distortion that power brings in our life today, especially technology-enabled power. We also have the Africa Media Convention that has been convening media stakeholders since 2020 to just look at the new landscape and what new innovative methods could work for Africa. But all these efforts, one thing that we learn is that there are lots of interesting possible solutions to the problem that we are dealing with, but in way too often these solutions are being considered in silos. And that has driven the Africa Editors Forum, the Eastern Africa Editors Society, and other stakeholders to launch what we are now calling the Afro Frequency.

Can you give us an example? Oh, so are we all getting t-shirts from here, from the African Frequency?

Yes, if you show me how to fight for journalists. But basically, what Afrofrequency is asking all of us to do is that the little solutions that we're able to innovate in our little valleys, our little rivers, let's all bring it up to a big tent so that MacMead in Accra need not reinvent the wheel of what we've solved in Nairobi. Thank you.

There is one thing I want to put to you. There is one thing. In all this, we have, let me say, the traditional journalist. But increasingly, it seems everybody is a journalist in the world now. You just have to bring out your smartphone, go live anywhere, and do whatever you want to do. How challenging is that when we cannot regulate everybody and anybody? It's an open field now. Someone would say journalism is democratized. How do we navigate that and help maintain information integrity?

Making the journalist more able to do the job he must do and by making possible for that product to get to everyone. Basically, we're saying that the journalist's role, the journalist's responsibility is needed now more than ever before. Because what technology has done?

You're talking about the trained journalist.

Yes.

Working with the major.

Yes.

Media house.

Exactly.

They should be empowered more.

Yes.

So that their voices rise above the voices of the citizen journalists.

Exactly, that's one. Okay. But also the culture. Mm.

Mm.

That makes the journalist commit to the truth. Mhm. Needs to be exposed a lot more to the public. So that people, citizens, and audiences understand that journalists don't just do the job because it's work. They look at it as a calling. And that our democracy needs that. If we transfer those values and disperse them in society, perhaps it opens a few more doors for us to deal with this.

I don't know if any member of the panel wants to add something quickly, MacMead. Once you do that, I want to turn to Dr. Mahama, because we need to hear from the government side. People think the government is out to crash and clamp down on certain people. But you want to add something quickly, and then I'll go for the balance from Dr. Nafissatou Mahama.

Yeah, thank you very much. Just to build on what Churchill has said, now the work that we are doing is to promote the hybrid way of transmitting information that is credible. What does this mean? It means some of these individuals who are producing public interest information working with credible, trusted, and reliable outlets, journalistic outlets, in countries that really need this kind of information that helps people to make informed choices and decisions. I can give you an example of a situation where the role of journalists is really credible and it's really needed. That country is in the Sahel. Now, prior to the overthrow, the military junta there, there was a coordinated attempt, coordinated effort, in fact, to just populate the landscape with a lot of false information. A lot of the people there were going out to look for information. People you talk to don't know which outlets to trust. So we supported Studio Kalangu. When I say we, I mean International Fund for Public Interest Media, supported Studio Kalangu, which works with about 19 different community radio stations. And mind you, in Africa, radio remains the bastion of truthful and credible public interest information. So people were looking for this, for outlets that they can get information from that they can rely on. the the support that was provided from if being two Studio Kalangu enabled this different media outlets to work with community networks, get information that they can counter this foreign interference that was that was coming from outside of this particular country. I don't want to be named in the name. I'm in the UN building. And to ensure that people have credible information.

Somebody's. Kalangu.

Yeah. Studio Kalangu was the is a was the outlets and the entity that we supported in this country. And this helped to minimize because within the a period of one week prior to and immediately after the coup, there were over 172 different false fake news coming out as to which minister has been killed, which minister has been detained, but as a result of these community radio stations, people were able to filter. And this is where public interest journalism is really important, but this is also why we're supporting the hybridization. You have credible journalists, trained and qualified, working with all the informations and producers to ensure that the public is given the information that it needs to make informed decisions.

Thank you. We appreciate. I'm going to pivot quickly because of time constraints. Uh Doctor Nafisa Mahama. We need a balance. The government and the public and the independent media and others. How can governments effectively address the issue of disinformation. Misinformation. Or AI driven information threats. But at the same time ensuring that we have press freedom, media freedom, journalists can do their work right. Without being targeted or feeling targeted by the government.

Okay, thank you for the opportunity. You've even answered part of the question, okay. So for government, government's role is to provide the needed environment, the institutional framework that will enable actors within the information ecosystem to work together to produce the kind of information that citizens can make informed decisions for. I say information integrity is a foundation of trust, democracy, and development. That enables the citizens make informed decisions without which even the ordinary citizen cannot even participate in public life. Okay. Now, we are confronted with misinformation, disinformation, and all that. I don't want us to dwell on the problem, the problem, the problem. Yes. How are we working to ensure that the citizen who doesn't have direct access to even technology can be able to identify which information is right or which information is wrong. And that boils down to policy. And policy direction does not, it's not supposed to be in such a way that it stifles freedom of expression. And so there's a thin line between ensuring or providing access to information and also putting in mechanisms that ensure that that information is credible. You understand? There's a thin line. Most of our African countries have passed access to information laws and right to information laws. Implementation, implementing such laws provides the general public access to data that government is holding, access to information that is held by any public institution. Now, the other side is, how do citizens get those information by themselves? How are they even aware that such information exists? The major activity that I will embark on is media information and literacy. Media information literacy is bringing the information closer to the consumer, training the consumer to be able to identify what information is right, what information is AI generated, and all that. It takes training to do that, and it takes budgetary options to do that. And you can't also do that as a gradual process.

Is there one key thing that you and the government of Ghana are doing that you would like to leave with us, let's take away and say, they are doing this in Ghana, maybe we can copy and adapt somewhere.

So the approach in Ghana is a collaborative approach. It's not just government's approach. Government collaborates with civil society, with the media, with tech companies to come out with solutions. Government's commitments under the Open Government Partnership has laid down a work plan as to how to approach this misinformation, disinformation. And it's a checklist that we go, including education, including citizens engagement and all that. I'll use ISE as the example, the Information Services Department. We have information officers who are government information officers in virtually every district and community in the whole country. And so such people are being trained understand to be able to identify what is misinformation, what is disinformation, what is deep fake and all that. To be able to perform in their role as information officers who are supposed to give the constituents credible, reliable government information for them to take informed decisions for their lives. If the person, the conveyor of the information himself does not even know his left from his right. How will that person do that?

So let me quickly pivot back. Churchill, before I go to Catherine Amirfa, any one or two things that you have observed that governments have done right, maybe we'll see more about governments not doing right. In your role with the Eastern African Editors society. Anything you've seen governments getting right that you think we need more of these things to help us maintain information integrity without journalists feeling targeted or being denied their right to press freedom?

Is it right now? Yes. What comes to mind is what we saw at the beginning of this year in South Africa, where the Competition Commission pushed big tech to provide resources to be invested in journalism. And I think it speaks to the need to update regulation of the news media on the continent. So that we acknowledge that journalism is good for society. But it doesn't just happen. Somebody needs to take care of it. If journalism is good for society, it is a public good. Usually, public goods are provided for by government in terms of reinforcing resources for that. One good example are the courts, which largely remain independent, even though they are funded from the public coffers. How is it that In nearly the entirety of Africa, we hardly have any public resources or influence for journalism. Yet, without journalism, our societies are weaker.

OK. I'm going to do something because I suddenly realize I'm running out of time. I'm enjoying the movement of this train. And we're going to have-- I'm going to ask everyone for just one minute to do something for us before I open the floor. And then after the questions and answers, then we will have a closing comment, remarks from Madam Ambassador. If there is one thing that we all need to do in the next 12 months, in the next one year, if there is one key action that we should recommend, whether for government, for civil societies, for the legal experts, to do in terms of advancing information integrity. What would that be? One minute from each of the distinguished panelists. What is the single most important commitment or concrete action that governments, media organizations, civil society, technology platforms, should take within the next 12 months? And I'm taking notes because next year I'll bring you back and see if this is implemented. Maybe we start with Catherine, Catherine Amira.

Great question. In a minute. It's to bring the domestic legal frameworks in line with international harm standards, international best standards, best practice. Because what we're required of governments is a balancing. On the one hand, you want to clean up the information ecosystem by potentially putting some content controls in. On the other, you want to preserve a pluralistic society that respects media freedom. It requires a balanced legal framework, and there's very good examples out there. You have to understand that misinformation is different than disinformation. Misinformation is if something gets lost, gossip spreading through a telephone line and something gets misunderstood. Disinformation is a push of power to manipulate you with a deliberate purpose. And there are very good examples, and the high-level panel has made recommendations of legal frameworks that balance this in line with human rights standards. The South African Disaster Management Act of 2020, actually in the context of COVID, manages disinformation at that point, it was about the pandemic, with the protection of the freedom of expression. So there are successful examples out there as to how to hit that balance.

To have the guardrails and the right rules to ensure that we manage this well. That's right. I will go to Churchill and I'll come to Ms. Ginsberg, McMeade, and then Dr. Nafisa Mahama, your one minute starts now. Solve the problem for us.

We must protect those whose core duty is to get us the truth. I think that's the best way to fight this disorder.

Are you working with Jody Ginsberg? We got the Committee for the Protection of Journalists. She protects you. Oh, okay. There's no conflict of interest there. So let's protect the journalists who are out there making sure that information integrity is maintained.

And it's not only journalists, there are also researchers. It's a whole cluster of disciplines whose core job is to get the truth out there.

I think it's a nice segue to Jody Ginsberg from the Committee for the Protection of Journalists.

So governments together with civil society, together with the industry need to do four things. They need to pay, invest, they need to protect, create enabling environments in which journalism and independent journalists can flourish. They need to promote the value of free and independent media and speak out in its defense and they need to punish the perpetrators of crimes against journalists. If there is one thing that CPJ would ask for the next 12 months, it is for Governments to come together with a real will to end impunity for crimes against journalists. We know that While crimes against journalists go unpunished, the environment in which journalists are unsafe persists. It means that information, polluted information, continues to be disseminated from populations. And one of the things that we endorse and are strongly pushing for is a recommendation made by the high level legal panel for an independent investigative body into crimes against journalists. If we can drive down impunity, we will improve the safety of journalists and we will improve the quality of the information ecosystem globally.

Thank you, Jody Ginsberg, the four Ps, pay, protect, promote, and punish. MacMait Camara, 60 seconds.

I think just to build on the four Ps, I will say IFPIM. The International Fund for Public Interest Media is the world's first and current and only multilateral entity that was established to support and finance public interest media and journalism across the world, especially in low and middle income countries. What I will say is governments and other stakeholders can trust the International Fund with their investment, as both Jody and Churchill have said. We deploy money to ensure that the media is economically resilient to forestall the threats that we've all outlined and the various attempts and attacks against public interest journalism to ensure that we have information integrity. So support the International Fund for Public Interest Media so that journalists and information producers across the world--.

Make money available.

And make them economically resilient. Thank you.

Dr. Nafisa Mahama.

Okay, so first of all, I'll say there should be scaling up of African innovations. There are quite a lot of innovations in various areas in Africa, especially along the lines of linguistics and culture, because most of the innovations are built on English language. And so we need to break it down into a local linguistics and cultural settings for understanding.

Then you are saying that there is a lot of potential misinformation, disinformation in local African languages, whereby if you're paying attention to English, French, and the others, you will miss those.

You'll miss those ones. You'll miss those ones a lot. And also strengthen media literacy. And for that, I will even move forward for us to push for a lot of countries adopting media information literacy, even from the educational sector. That will be in line with UNESCO Information for All program that is ongoing. Then also ensure that AI serves information integrity rather than manipulation. So the emphasis is take advantage of that aspect of AI positively instead of leaning towards the, because the manipulation is there, but how can we turn it around for the positive good of all?

Okay, I'm gonna say a big thank you. For the next few minutes, anybody from the floor, I understand Dr. David Eisenberg from Montclair State University, that is one, and the lady here, how many minutes shall I give each person? A minute each, one minute each. My commander in chief has declared, it's not me, that it's one minute each, Dr. Ginsberg. you first, and then the lady here, another lady. Mention your name, your organization when I come to you, all within one minute. Dr. Ginsberg first. Did I say Ginsberg? Eisenberg. I'm so sorry. Ginsberg here, Eisenberg from Montclair University. Just press, press. Oh, okay. because she's my sister, I will try and come to her last. Please keep the lights on. It will turn red from Noah in the booth. Please go ahead.

Thank you. While there certainly are ways that consumers and journalists can be better informed or personally empowered to identify misinformation, AI companies' own responsibility to profit their shareholders and grow can sometimes be at odds with responsibility to the public good or safety. Without companies being allowed to accept and pursue those profits from potentially harmful activities. It seems many negative outcomes could be avoided. What do you think could be done by governments or NGOs with penalties, laws, or legal action to compel often international, powerful, and often international private and public companies that own and develop AI to act responsible with their deployment and their research and development programs?

Right now. Let's come to lady here, introduce yourself briefly and for 60 seconds share.

Thank you so much, excellencies and dear delegates. My name is Ellen Creta Deol and I'm the science policy data focal point for United Nations MGCY and also an AI product designer. And one question I had was if an automated system mistakenly cuts off a person's food, healthcare or disability benefits, can that individual turn to when there isn't a single human being available to fix it? And that's something that our current automated systems do not account for. And when we discuss information integrity, we usually think of deepfakes and viral misinformation. But the most dangerous failure of integrity happens inside our public services when an algorithm quietly cuts off life-saving support based on unverified assumptions. And with the rise of agentic AI, these autonomous systems do not just generate text, they take binding actions against public databases. And an automated error is no longer just a wrong sentence. It is an immediate denial of a person's basic livelihood and dignity. And this happens because these models are routinely trained based off of open internet data that's scraped. Is this still the question?

Is somebody paying attention to answer?

Yeah, so my main question is, from your perspective as policymakers, how are you envisioning institutions to make sure as AI agents are used to automate workflows, how can you make sure individuals are being protected and automated system won't just make a decision for them, but there's human in the loop?

Okay, lady here, 30 seconds, gentleman there. Okay, press it, it's good, you're good to go.

Hello, yeah. Thank you for the discussion. My name is Claire. I work focusedly family and children a lot. So my question is very simple. So are we building enough capacities or capabilities for the children early enough? That means family and children who are on the front line and who is going to be responsible for that? Our parents or families or government or media platforms? Who's going to be responsible? Thank you.

Your concern is family and children. gentleman, sir.

Do I get a red light? Okay, there we go. Yeah, hi. 30 seconds, okay. Dr. Thomas G. Hedberg, I'm the executive director for International Medical Crisis Response Alliance. What we do is disseminate medical information, remedial medical information worldwide, and we have now two to three years of personal experience with deliberate, strategized disinformation, misinformation, and propaganda, which has been designed specifically to dissuade us from basically advising on vaccines, so on and so forth. So my quick message is this, and I will wrap it up fast, is that we feel and we know from personal experience that misinformation, disinformation, and propaganda is carefully strategized by immensely wealthy organizations for both political and for corporate needs. And rather than fighting it by saying, let's design a system that will ensure equitability, ecosystem and whatnot. Our approach is to fight back using the same psychological seductive techniques that these highly strategized and carefully planned misinformation and disinformation campaigns use to dissuade large populations. And my question is, is anyone willing to join us?

You sound compelling. Use the same strategy of the enemy to defeat the enemy. That's it. Any quick points before I wrap up? Any quick points? Anybody wants to address any of the questions raised? If AI agents cut off food supplies and medical supplies, who is going to help us? And then family and children. And Dr. Eisenberg. raised the question. Anybody wants to say anything briefly before I turn over to the closing remarks. Oh. Okay. I'm so sorry. Uh Miss Annie Amperfo came here all the way from Washington DC. Thank you. You have the floor.

Thank you.

20 seconds.

Thank you. Um I just want us to look at this holistically because we we seem to be considering just our circle, but in the bigger picture, there are debates, especially on AI. I've been following the recent debates from big technological companies that are raising concerns of the levels at which AI is rising to. And I think they want to suggest to us that it's posing more negatives than positives. So my question really is, if we are considering the debate with AI today and wanting to join that debate, and also consider designing specific programs or algorithms that best suits the specific countries that we're in. So it's not just we're following something that's been created and we're all following the world, because every country, I think, operates differently. So that's my question.

But still, we need global standards. I wish we had time. Maybe AI should stretch time for us. then I wouldn't be in this difficult position of having to apologize to everyone. But I want to thank-- please put your hands together for the panelists. Madam Laura,,, which is the Finnish word for thank you. Catherine Amilva, Churchill Otieno, Asante Sana, Jodi Ginsburg, thank you for protecting journalists around the world. have some friends you protected and I'm glad about that. Macmeet Kamara, thank you for reminding me of my BBC days. Dr. Winifred, we are looking up to you. Balance us, regulate us, but give us room to maneuver. Thank you so much. It's now my duty to bring us to the closing remarks. We are honored to have here with us a distinguished diplomat, She told me she studied chemistry. It's another thing we will come to one day. Ambassador Kate Foster from the UK Mission to the United Nations, the floor is yours, please. If you could press.

Thanks very much, Ambassador. And on behalf of the United Kingdom, one of the co-chairs of the Media Freedom Coalition, I would also like to thank Ghana for convening this hugely important discussion and then it's almost a bit like you've done this before. But control of information, as we've heard, who shapes it, who twists it, who has access to it, has become, in essence, one of the greatest strategic battlegrounds of our age. And as we've heard so eloquently today, independent journalism has never mattered more. And thank you very much to all of the panelists. for sharing your experience and thoughts, and for the work that you do in projecting journalists around the world and challenging and holding Governments like my own to account. We are all in violent agreement about the importance of journalism. It remains one of the strongest defences that democracy has. It allows people to make informed choices. It holds leaders to account. It exposes corruption and illicit finance. And it helps keep us safe by countering foreign information manipulation. I think, Jody, you mentioned elections. And as Moldovan President Mir Sandu said last year around Moldovan elections, peace cannot survive without information integrity, and democracies cannot survive without those who protect it. As we have heard today, media freedom is under attack in Africa and throughout the world. Journalists are being harassed, detained, exiled and, in many cases, killed. You are absolutely right that it is important to highlight the extent to which female journalists are disproportionately affected by that. Thank you again for the work that you do. We are seeing independent outlets squeezed by censorship, legal threats, and financial pressure. The technological innovation and AI that we have touched on in the final segment of discussion bring new and different challenges. All of this is happening in an environment that is increasingly polluted by disinformation on a massive scale. And that flood of falsehoods erodes trust, it leaves people unsure about what or who to believe. And in the UK, we're acutely aware as well of the scale of this challenge. And actually, as my prime minister said this week in his national statement, we have seen an industrial scale assault by hostile actors on the information environment. And that is referring to the UK and very familiar with some of the work that you talked about in the Sahel and some of the brilliant agencies operating to try and maintain space around media freedom. All of that is why, as the United Kingdom, we are really committed to addressing this issue, both as the UK, but also working in partnership with others. So globally, the role of the Media Freedom Coalition, the United Nations, other multilateral fora, to protect media freedom, information integrity, The United Kingdom remains deeply committed to the BBC World Service and no requirement for lobbying. And the value, as others have pointed to, I've spent much of my career working in and around Africa. And the sort of the, yeah, the rhythm of BBC World Service that emerges from every radio set around the continent really pays testament to the importance and the value of trusted news around the globe. And we will always use our platform as UK, whether that's in these global fora or whether it is us sort of bilaterally, our platform, our embassies, high commissions, working locally with journalist organizations to protect, to advocate for media freedom, to lobby for journalists who are imprisoned, who are detained. I agree on the role of impunity and accountability is vitally important. But there's so much more we can learn from each other, and thank you to all who have also talked about some of those practical actions and challenges for us to think about as we look forward. And as co-chairs of the Media Freedom Coalition, we firmly believe that only by working together can we meet those challenges of this fast changing world. I think together we can be a powerful voice for strong, independent, public interest journalism and to protect those with the bravery to provide it. And in leading the coalition, we're privileged to have Finland as our co-chairs and Ghana on the executive group, as well as 48 other member countries. I think we'd also really love to see more participation from committed governments around Africa. My thanks to Ghana for really highlighting the work that they're doing, not just in hosting the event, but being such a strong advocate for media freedom in Africa and beyond. And we really would welcome other countries across the continent joining into the work of the coalition. I think we all agree as a sort of very self-selecting group in this room, but just to finalize, if we want societies that are resilient, informed, and free, we must stand up for the journalists and media organizations that make them possible. So thank you very much.

Thank you, DPR. Thank you so much, DPR, Kate Foster, for summarizing the entire agenda. Thank you to all of you, IFPIM, thank you to the Office of Government Communications, the Information Services Department, and every single one of you who made it here to help make this conversation successful. My name is Nuan Phalong. The conversation will continue outside this room. We need to hand over the room to Afghanistan right now. Thank you.