Key learnings from the International Journalism Festival, Perugia

It is always so rewarding to be part of the International Festival of Journalism in Perugia, and to hear powerful testimonies and extraordinary innovation from all those invested in the future of the profession. From the impact of AI on information ecosystems to the mounting challenges experienced by media in exile, here are my key takeaways from the event.

1.?As AI supercharges disinformation around elections, journalists need to be one step ahead of tactics and tools

With an estimated 2 billion people heading to the polls in more than 70 countries this year, accurate information has become the most critical asset for citizens. But just how much AI will be harnessed to influence election outcomes is still largely unknown. AI tools are already being deployed to shape public opinion and journalists need to be ahead of the game in understanding both the opportunities and the threats of AI adoption for election campaigning and manipulation. “We must question the foundation of information ecosystems, the structure of the internet, the way tech has ruled the world,” warned Nobel Laureate and CEO of Philippine digital news outlet Rappler, Maria Ressa . “At Rappler, we use AI but we’ve trained it. Don’t rely on it for facts and retain control for your news organisation. Power it for yourself.”

Examples of AI transforming political campaigning surfaced repeatedly throughout the event – such as in the ‘brand washing’ tactics that reinvented General Prabowo Subianto, Indonesia’s former defence minister accused of human rights abuses - as a ‘cuddly’ AI avatar, in advance of his election as President of the world’s third largest democracy.

With India ranked highest for the risk of misinformation and disinformation ahead of elections in the World Economic Forum's 2024 Global Risk Report , Co-founder and Managing Director of Quint Digital Media Ltd Ritu Kapur highlighted concerns over low media and digital literacy, amidst widespread media capture in the country. “AI is being used to for an increasing volume of propogandist disinformation. Journalists need to upskill to understand every possible tool available now. You must be able to factcheck through voice cloning, video, deepfakes, to be able to work with tech companies that are developing tools and use them to add speed, to add scale, to disseminate facts as soon as possible. We need to harness AI to our advantage.”

Meanwhile VP and Executive Director of Aspen Digital and Thomson Reuters Foundation Trustee Vivian Schiller urged us to view the way in which AI was being used ahead of elections in the US as ‘a dress rehearsal for 2028’. But there are already examples of its positive use. “Language is one of the most exciting developments of Generative AI. People who speak minority languages that are not prioritized for tech companies can now get vital civic information in their own language. The key thing is to educate the general public as to how they validate the information they’re getting actually came from election officials.”

But threats to democracy in some countries in the Global South aren’t attributable to a single technology, warned Luis Fernando García , Exec Director at digital rights organisation?Red en Defensa de los Derechos Digitales in Mexico. “Totalitarianism, organised crime, surveillance, for example, give contexts to the risks and threats of AI. It gives people the opportunity to exert more control over populations and dismantle democracy, to suppress dissent. Even if right now your country's democratic, the next government might be authoritarian and have all these tools in place to make democracy very difficult for everyone.”

2.?Harnessing the power of AI will be critical for the future of newsrooms

While AI’s integration into the newsroom promises a boost to efficiency, it poses a significant existential threat to journalistic integrity. Concerns raised across panels focused on the potential for AI to devalue content. In an industry that favours being first, those outlets that use the technology to churn out fast, sensationalist clickbait may initially come out on top. Both the challenge and opportunity for newsrooms will be to differentiate themselves from this crowd of noise machines, providing genuine value to their readers through real human storytelling that puts their audience first.

In conversation with TV presenter Barbara Serra , Shailesh Prakash , VP News for Google, told a packed room, “If journalism doesn’t thrive, then democracy is in trouble. AI is an empowering technology. When this technology advances, you'll effectively have a team of assistants to make you more creative, more able to pursue those parts of journalism that are extremely hard, eg investigative work, building relationships. We are just at the beginning of leveraging AI. We are five minutes into a 90 min football game when it comes to AI development.”

We heard of exciting examples of newsrooms collaborating with big tech to create purpose-built AI tools that that meet the specific needs of their newsrooms without bypassing ethical standards. For example, Lena Beate Hamborg Pedersen from Norway’s biggest daily newspaper Aftenposten explained how experimentation with cloned voices in audio-led coverage led to an increase in their audiences and boosted accessibility. Listenership figures of text articles read by AI are now on par with the outlet's podcasts.

Nota, a tool incubated by Microsoft, also showcases some innovative solutions to boost SEO optimisation in real time and to increase newsletter opening rate.

Professor Charlie Beckett , Professor of Practice, Director of Polis and the Polis/LSE JournalismAI project, told us: “The big hope is that AI will allow your journalists to do what they do best. To be curious, to witness, to report, to have a sense of humour and a sense of moral outrage. All these things can only be done by humans and that is what makes your journalism valuable.”

3.?How much do digital platforms owe the press? Legislation could provide an answer

The development of machine learning models relies upon continually feeding them high quality data. Increasingly, the thirst for timely and accurate information is pushing up the value of journalism – but it’s the tech companies who are profiting rather than the journalists. In a panel moderated by Director of the Center for Journalism and Liberty Courtney Radsch, PhD , speakers cautioned that the volatile media industry needed to be supported – or large language models would increasingly use poor quality data, sparking a cycle of misinformation and ‘model collapse’. “There's an assumption that journalism's role is to make Generative AI products more accurate - but that is not our role. Our role is to be watchdogs on power. It is actually really harmful to scrape all of journalism's content…I'm worried that this turns us into unpaid workers for most profitable companies in the world,” warned Julia Angwin , founder of Proof News.

Elsewhere, we heard that that whilst Australian regulation has enabled news organisations to extract almost $200 million AUD from platforms, a power imbalance existed in the negotiations. A Columbia University study led by Anya Schiffrin , a Thomson Reuters Foundation Trustee, argued that newsrooms are being shortchanged, and that in the US alone, a fair price for news would be more than $12 billion USD a year.?

The UK’s upcoming Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act has the potential to help make negotiations fairer and more transparent as the regulator will be able to lift the lid and ask the platforms for relevant data, such as how much traffic is being generated by news. And because it’s neutral as to the tech it covers, there is scope for AI firms to be obliged to negotiate with the companies they depend on for their services. This is critical, because as?Anya highlighted, “Large language models, and the fact that they have just taken - in many places - the archives of newspaper publishers, has raised a whole new level of anxiety in the world of publishing.” ?

4.?Media forced into exile is a growing global phenomenon

This was a key theme of the event, in which we heard powerful accounts from journalists who have been forced to flee from countries around the world –?from Nigeria and Russia, to Eritrea, Venezuela and South Sudan. Recognising the different geographies and contexts, as well as the varying types of exile, is critical to keep in mind when responding to this issue and shaping support. Two common themes were prevalent: the importance of building resilience and fostering the sustainability of exiled media.??

Building resilience is particularly critical for media who have not yet been forced into exile, but who are seeing the warning signs – as explored in the Foundation’s panel Preparing for exile: the playbook every journalist dreads but needs . These include lawfare, cyberattacks, physical and online threats, and conflict. Chief Executive of Internews Europe Meera Selva stressed that, “when bad actors want to stop journalists, they stop operations. We’ve seen them seize laptops and use Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation – so being able to offer resilience to journalists is hugely powerful.” She highlighted how technology can be used to support journalists preparing for exile, such as using the Cloud to ensure that content is backed up and accessible from a new destination – as opposed to on physical servers – and using open bank accounts so that money can be accessed from across borders.?

For those operating in exile, it’s?about sustainability. This needs to encompass every element of the media - including access to legal assistance, cybersecurity and psycho-social support, and understanding how media can generate revenue in a new jurisdiction. It should also include strengthening the capacity of newsroom managers and leaders in exile who suddenly find themselves in new roles, keeping their outlet alive.

5.?Lawfare used against journalists is now targeting their lawyers

We know that globally, the law is increasingly being weaponised to silence independent reporting and to compromise journalists’ freedom, wellbeing, and financial security. But as ‘lawfare’ escalates in intensity and complexity, lawyers are increasingly becoming the targets of a wide range of attacks that seek to undermine their efforts in defending journalists’ mission to hold truth to power.

From phone hacking and harassment to imprisonment and death threats, legal professionals are taking significant risks to defend our democratic values. At the Thomson Reuters Foundation ’s panel on Defending the Defenders: Upholding Justice in the Face of Lawfare we heard powerful testimony from Doughty Street Chambers Barrister Caoilfhionn Gallagher KC , herself repeatedly persecuted for her defending of high profile journalists including founder of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy newspaper Jimmy Lai. “International lawyers are being targeted in a way that I've never seen before. Lawyers need much better security hygiene. One of the weakest points in your armour if you're a journalist could be your lawyer. We know autocratic states are targeting these weak points,” she told a packed room.

This was the experience of Jose Zamora , who was jailed following coverage of Guatemalan president Alejandro Giammattei in El Periódico, the newspaper he founded. His son, José, told the panel his father’s defence had a turnover of 10 lawyers because one by one they were targeted by the State. “Criminalising journalists' lawyers sends a message that it's entirely organised crime. It got to the point that no lawyer wanted to take my father's case because they knew the consequences,” he said.

This escalating threat to media freedom is why TRF, in collaboration with Media Defence and the American Bar Association, has conducted a piece of research, which will be published later this year, mapping the rise in legal threats to lawyers defending journalists. The report builds on our research released last year - Weaponising the Law: Attacks on Media Freedom – focused on surging legal threats to journalists and conducted in collaboration with the Tow Centre for Digital Journalism at Columbia University.

The International Festival of Journalism leaves me inspired and doubly committed to working in collaboration with all those committed to protecting a free media ecosystem, so critical to democracy. As we look ahead to World Press Freedom Day on May 3, I carry with me the energy, excitement, and optimism from Perugia.

I would like to thank all the fantastic speakers gave their valuable time to participate in Foundation’s panel discussions, alongside my fantastic colleagues Enrique Anarte Lazo , Yasir Khan and Heba Kandil who also shared their expertise and insights at the event. ?

We’ll be continuing these important conversations at this year’s Trust Conference, the Foundation’s global forum that convenes experts, innovators, and activists at the forefront of shaping free and equitable societies. It’s free to attend – subscribe to our newsletter to hear about how to register. I’ll see you there!