Around the world and at any period in history, practising journalism carries a profound sense of mission – a kind of special priesthood driven by the conviction that free and reliable information possesses the power to positively transform society, or at least slow down the processes of civilizational degradation. In Latin America, it has always required a great deal of perseverance, and even dashes of heroism, to confront threats and intimidation.
Now, massive doses of stubbornness must be added to this blend of challenges to ensure the survival of the press itself as a fundamental institution for democratic societies.
The balances compiled by organisations defending press freedom are always terrifying when they reach the chapter on Latin America. Some dictatorships rank among the worst in any index of persecution against a free press, such as Cuba and Nicaragua. There are recurring murders of journalists, such as in Mexico, where seven media professionals had been killed this year up to August 15th. And there are also the constant intimidations from far-right and left-wing governments. Such regimes, which have multiplied across the region in the wake of polarisation, often single out the press as an enemy as a way to try to eliminate the messenger of bad news and scrutiny over their administrations.
The world, indeed, has never been easy for journalists in Latin America. But now, only stubbornness – translated into resilience within this priesthood – proves capable of resisting the devastating wave of algorithmic changes and the unauthorised appropriation of journalistic content, so painstakingly produced, and which is used to feed Artificial Intelligence models with almost no recognition. Everyone defends press freedom, but beyond being free, the press itself also needs to be robust, economically healthy and long-term viable.
The gradual annihilation of the journalistic ecosystem benefits authoritarian regimes, corrupt governments and politicians, and everyone who views the professional press not as an ally against barbarism, but as an enemy to be destroyed.
However, such destruction would not benefit Big Tech and AI models. Verified, balanced, and pluralistic information is an increasingly scarce commodity in this world bewildered by manipulation and deepfakes. It should, therefore, be treated as a precious asset by billionaire AI platforms, who spend fortunes on talent, software, chips, energy, and data centres, yet refuse to properly compensate the suppliers of their most critical input: the precise and reliable information still produced by newsrooms.
Without professional journalism, a vast layer of data on AI platforms will become an immense quagmire where hallucinations and disinformative aberrations will reign supreme.
Anyone wishing to get an idea of what this new universe would look like should recall what occurred in Ceuta last July. More than 70,000 Moroccans, mostly young people, threw themselves into the sea because they firmly believed a piece of disinformation spread at high speed via social networks and messaging groups, which claimed that merely reaching Ceuta by sea would put Europe at their feet.
Now, according to the latest research by the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism at Oxford University, 52% of young people between 18 and 24 get their news primarily from social media. The result of this trend? A deceived mass and more than 80 bodies pulled from the sea.
This sobering vision of an informational hell is a preview of what could happen if the erosion of the journalistic ecosystem continues. Without investigative reporting, the corrupt, the environmental destroyers, the human rights exterminators, despots, and a vast legion of wrongdoers – often beyond the reach of the law – will have a free hand to act. Without plurality, society will lose its sense of checks and balances, which are essential to decision-making processes in democracies, and will become increasingly held hostage by extremism and polarisation. Without reliable journalism, our societies will regress through centuries of civilisation.
An extraordinary Brazilian film, I'm Still Here (Ainda Estou Aqui), received two Oscar nominations in 2025 and won Best International Feature Film. It narrates the moral, ethical, and emotional resistance of a family faced with the brazenness of the military dictatorship following the disappearance of their father – a federal deputy of moderate leanings, yet still viewed as an enemy to be eliminated. Journalism in Latin America is experiencing a similar situation. It suffers from violence, persecution, and injustices, and now faces the existential threat of destruction by artificial intelligence. But we are still here. And it never hurts to remember what a Brazilian oral tradition inspired by indigenous resistance proclaims: as long as there is bamboo, there will be arrows.
The writer is a Journalist and Executive President of the Brazilian Newspaper Association (ANJ)
This opinion piece was commissioned as part of the World News Day campaign, an initiative to show the value of journalism.
