EESC Connecting EU Seminar: Journalism is a public good that the EU must defend

Journalists are under increasing pressure from governments and private interests that curb media freedom. On top of more familiar obstacles, they are now battling the challenges of generative AI, which, despite the many benefits it could bring, threatens to undermine the economic foundations of the profession.

The media's current situation and its place in society was the focus of the seminar "A bastion of democracy: helping journalism survive and thrive" organised by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC) as part of its annual "Connecting EU Seminar" cycle. 

"What is truth? This is the age-old question that has resurfaced in the context of AI, in the context of fake news, conspiracy theories and authoritarian governments, all of which systematically undermine informed debate, accuracy and respectful discussion. It is so timely that we come together to look for questions and answers that unite us in the EU," said EESC President Oliver Röpke.

"20 years ago, few could have predicted that in 2024 most of us would no longer read the morning paper with our morning coffee, but would browse through our phones to read news on the news websites and increasingly so - on social media," said Aurel Laurenţiu Plosceanu, EESC Vice-President for Communication, "But beyond new challenges, old ones remain. Journalists still battle their old enemies: censorship, opaque media ownership, insufficient funding and anti-media laws, to name but a few."

Ricardo Gutiérrez, General Secretary of the European Federation of Journalists, stressed that the work of journalists should be treated as a “public service” or “public good” threatened not only by economic challenges, such as the growing number of freelancers without a regular source of income, but also the attempts to create a chilling effect through harassing lawsuits (SLAPPs) and by direct violence (14 journalists killed in the EU since 2015).

 "Journalism is becoming a more dangerous profession than ever," argued Jerzy Pomianowski, Executive Director of the European Endowment for Democracy, citing the persecution of journalists in Belarus.

Dr Alexandra Borchardt, Senior Research Associate at the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at the University of Oxford, made what she called the “provocative” claim that “journalism and generative AI are at odds because journalism is about facts, and generative AI calculates probabilities, so it's not about facts. That's why it needs to be fact-checked," she said in her keynote speech 'Trusted Information in the Age of Generative AI'.

Ms Borchardt warned the media against falling into the trap of the 'digital divide', in which one part of society embraces the age of AI and the rest is reluctant or even hostile to new technologies. If the media were to fall into the latter camp, it would entail the capitulation of journalists in the battle to use and benefit from AI to produce modern content and reach audiences more effectively.

One of the challenges for the media arising from generative AI, as Ms Borchardt mentioned, is the loss of visibility for journalists in an AI-based business model. There is also the risk of loss of control over journalistic content by technology platforms. The overabundance of information that AI can mass-produce can lead to audience overload. “And the question remains, will young people want to become journalists if it means competing with AI?" asked Ms Borchardt.

Jean-Paul Marthoz, columnist for Le Soir, who took part in the panel 'Responsible Journalism in the Post-Truth Era', pointed out that the current threats to the media are part of a strategic attack on the system of liberal democracy. In addition, there are journalists working in some media newsrooms who are opposed to freedom of expression and the Western democratic system.

Seamus Boland, President of the EESC's Civil Society Organisations Group, stressed the need to anchor the work of journalists within civil society, without which it is not possible to raise and pursue the essence of the journalistic story with integrity. "Who will pay for trustworthy information? 

This is a fundamental question that requires social dialogue," said Milena Angelova, member of the EESC's Employers' Group. Lucie Studničná, President of the EESC Workers' Group, sounded the alarm over journalists' working conditions and urged that as new technologies, including AI, improve media productivity, journalists should share in these benefits.

"They want to kill me for telling the truth," said Andrey Gnyot, a journalist and filmmaker from Belarus, currently under house arrest in Belgrade. He addressed the  panel "The job of living dangerously - investigative reporting" via a video message. A Serbian court is considering a request for Gnyot’s extradition to Belarus on politically motivated charges, the real cause of which is the suppression of freedom of expression. As Mr Gnyot argued, the greatest threat to journalism is not AI and other future challenges but “a brute force intent on destroying truth and decency”.

Another speaker from Belarus, Hanna Liubakova, who was sentenced by the Belarus government to 10 years in prison in absentia, said that the cost of information was high in her country.

"33 journalists are behind bars, not including bloggers," she said, adding that the government had labelled 5000 social media accounts as extremist, including her X account. "If people in Belarus subscribe to my channel, they can end up in jail," she maintained.

 Lukáš Diko, director of the Ján Kuciak Investigative Centre in Slovakia, pointed towards Russian disinformation as one of the factors contributing to the lack of trust in the media and – instigated by the authorities - the alienation of journalists in Slovakia. This is why, just a few years after the mass protests following the murder of journalist Ján Kuciak, the country is becoming increasingly hostile to journalists.