The Wits Centre for Journalism and African Women in Media recently hosted a webinar exploring the debates, best practices and ethical roadmaps for deploying artificial intelligence in African newsrooms, featuring Dr. Grace Githaiga, CEO at KICTANet, Sara Elkhalili, senior media development manager at the Thomson Reuters Foundation, and Emaediong Akpan, lawyer and digital rights advocate, in conversation with WCJ director Dr Dinesh Balliah.
As newsroom structures continue to evolve, how do we navigate this increasing diversity when creating policies and regulations for AI usage in Africa? How do we as Africans start to shift the canon of data AI draws from, which is so often skewed in its negative portrayal of the continent?
And critically, the panel raises the urgent question of how laws can protect journalists, especially women, from AI abuses. From deepfakes to online harassment, the conversation revealed a critical gap in legal frameworks designed to safeguard human rights, press freedom and gender equity.
Sara also spoke to the Thomson Reuters Foundation’s latest report, “Three steps to an AI-ready newsroom: A practical guide”, designed to help newsrooms identify ethical risks in their AI applications and take action to mitigate these. The full report is available here.
Watch the full webinar below: