By Collins Yakubu-Hammer
The Executive Secretary of Nigerian Press Council, Dr Dili Ezughah has admonished journalists and other stakeholders to use Artificial Intelligence (AI) cautiously as it could destabilise the country’s politics and spread falsehoods.
Ezughah gave the advice in his address of welcome at an event to mark the World Press Freedom Day 2025 in Abuja.
The celebration with the theme, “Navigating the AI Frontier: Strenthening Press Freedom in Nigeria’s Digital Transformation” was organised by NPC.
He equate AI to the movie industry like HollywoodandNollywood. “It is a make-believe world; a world of all sorts of possibilities. It’s a tool that creates reality out of fiction.
“Consumers of the creation of the movie industry or the AI, sometimes they wonder if what they are receiving or consuming is true. That’s how powerful both instruments are, the movie industry and the AI.
“However, we can utilize this tool for good in journalism; We can now edit faster, we can code information faster, use AI to ascertain the veracity of any information and narrative.
“We can do that very quickly and accurately. The dangers is that, AI can be use to destabilise the politics, to lie and create falsehood; the choice is ours.
“Only recently, a friend sent me an anecdote. It says, now that your medical students are passing their exams with AI, you better begin to eat well, exercise well and begin to do the right things.
“I want to urge the print media to employ AI positively, because it has the potential to take away even our freedom as journalists. It has the potential to limit our voices and narrow us down to one narrative,” Ezughah advised.
Meanwhile, the Federal Commissioner, Tax Appeal Tribunal, South East Zone, Dr Chukwudi Oracle in his paper presentation titled “AI and Press Freedom: Legal Frameworks and Constitutional Imperatives” said AI has come to stay.
According to him, AI provides opportunities, but also complex challenges.
“It enhances investigative journalism, expanded opportunities to help gathering of data and fact checking stories, however, it has the issue of censorship, bias, deepfake, suppress information and can skew narrative.
“All these undermine public trust and credibility of journalists. There is need for AI to respect fundamental human rights. AI must be designed to be inclusive,” Oracle said.
Similarly, Prof. Ani Casmir, from the University of Nigeria, Usukka said AI is good, but should be manage with responsibility, adding that if you don’t build a synergy of framework, it would not work.
Casmir stressed that journalist must operate with a societal conscience, because there is a community and nation that they are serving.
He explained that in order to balance freedom and responsibility, journalists must respect and uphold the ethical policy, because it consolidate our press freedom.
According to him, there is issue of plagiarism and intellectual property violation and theft in AI’s generated write up.
“Large Language Models are models use in training AI, drawing from different sectors and languages, if you don’t have the accurate data, or when there is cultural bias, it will show, because it is ‘garbage in garbage out’.
“There is need for human supervision in using AI, Press Council should strategise and ensure that patriotism and nationalism are embedded in AI build in Nigeria. 80 per cent of AI are from the Western World.
“AI system and regulation should be design to protect our human rights. We can work with UNESCO, UNIDO and other stakeholders to ensure AI governance system promote dialogue with the media.
“Freedom must be guided and measure by responsibility. We should not allow AI companies to kill our diversity in Nigeria,” Casmir said.
News AgencyofNigeria (NAN) reports that the event attracted participants from the media space and academia with physical and online presence. (NAN)