The managing director of the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, Ali M. Ali, says the organisation is Artificial Intelligence, AI, compliant and has improved in upholding accountability and ethical journalism to meet up with global best practices.
Mr Ali stated this during a panel discussion at an event to mark the 2025 World Press Freedom Day on Saturday in Abuja.
The event with the theme “Navigating the AI Frontier: Strengthening Press Freedom in Nigeria’s Digital Transformation” was organised by the Nigerian Press Council, NPC.
The panel discussion with the topic “AI Transformation of Nigeria’s Media Landscape” was moderated by Ben Agande.
The NAN boss explained that the media has the responsibility of setting an agenda for the growth of every sector in the country.
He said AI has proved to be a game changer in what we do every day.
“Unless you adapt to AI, chances are that you will be left behind. Now, from AI, when Google started, we believed it will make our job a lot easier as journalists.
“I came from the old school of journalism where you have to go to the library to do your research. For some of us who have navigated the newsroom for years, close to four decades, you will see a lot of transformations.
“Why are we going back to history? So that we understand the impact of AI and how it has affected content generation. And where also, if you don’t shape up, then you have to shape out or shoot down.
“However, it is dangerous to use AI especially in the absence of a regulatory framework.
“Since we took charge of NAN, we have made a healthy tradition of accountability, ethical journalism, which sometimes is at the brink of it. Sometimes we are slow in breaking the news.
“We subject ourselves to the highest standard of accountability, ethical journalism, and transparency. These are the core and the values of real journalism.
“We are using AI to drive some of our goals and vision, especially in broadcasting in local languages, especially in Hausa,” the MD said.
The managing director explained that the use of AI to generate news in Hausa made the job easy, adding that the organisation will extend the same to other local languages in the country.
He described journalism as a calling like priesthood, stressing that a good journalist can not be compromised
“You are there because you want to always be on the side of the truth. You cannot be compromised. You rise above the divisions that define us in terms of religions, tribe and culture.
“What we try to do in the agency is that we see people for their competence, who they are and not what they are,” Mr Ali said.
One of the panelists, Oluyemisi Bamgbose admonished media practitioners to take AI very seriously, while another panelist, retired Lt. Col. Abdulwahab Lawal said we must integrate our culture into AI.
In his contribution, Ani Casmir, maintained that building an AI that does not take into consideration the language of the people would be counterproductive and cause destruction.
In the same vein, the national secretary of Nigeria Union of Journalists, Achike Achude, said the government and the people have to synergise in achieving national development.
He said that inventors of AI have warned about its dangers, hence caution should be applied when using AI.
NAN
