Buea, May 3, 2025 - Human rights advocate Nkongho Felix Agbor, also known as Agbor Balla, has issued a statement on World Press Freedom Day, calling for stronger protections for journalists and media workers. As the President of the Centre for Human Rights and Democracy in Africa (CHRADA), Agbor Balla emphasized the importance of press freedom in promoting accountability, reforms, and democratic participation.
This year's theme, "Reporting in the Brave New World – The Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Press Freedom and the Media," highlights the challenges posed by emerging technologies, including disinformation, deepfakes, and surveillance threats. Agbor Balla stressed that defending press freedom requires safeguarding the integrity and credibility of information in the digital age.
In Cameroon, journalists face harassment, imprisonment, and violence for doing their jobs, and censorship, media capture, and misuse of technology undermine the public's right to know. Agbor Balla called for stronger legal protections for journalists, transparency in AI use, and ethical frameworks that support truth and journalistic independence.
He also reiterated the need for an Access to Information law to reduce the burden of seeking verifiable information by journalists in Cameroon. Agbor Balla honored the courage of media professionals who risk everything to inform the public, emphasizing that their fight is a shared responsibility.
"Press freedom in the age of AI is our shared responsibility," Agbor Balla said, urging collective action to defend press freedom as a cornerstone of human rights and democracy.
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