The famous German daily Taz, die tageszeitung, known for its progressive stance on social, political and environmental issues, has been reader-funded and owned through a cooperative since 1992. (Photo credit: Carsten Koall/picture Alliance via Getty Images)
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier has pledged his country's support to President Cyril Ramaphosa as South Africa assumes the G20 presidency in 2025. Steinmeier made the remarks during a brief stay in South Africa during a four-day tour of Nigeria and the Kingdom of Lesotho. .
South Africa, the first African country to hold the G20 Presidency, will use its G20 Presidency to “highlight the barriers to AI readiness and opportunity facing developing countries, including unequal and unequal access to digital infrastructure.” “I will make it happen,” he said.
What happens to these disparities in the face of Africa's troubled media landscape?
In November, the German Foreign Ministry email and guardian On our media tour, we discuss how Germany has been dealing with disinformation and how African countries holding elections this year can better cope with the information surge.
During this visit organized by the Goethe Institute, journalists and fact-checkers from African English-speaking countries who were on a media tour spoke about the need for African-centric solutions to African problems after seven days of seminars with various role players. expressed.
This was a sentiment echoed by colleagues facing media restrictions in Mozambique, Tanzania and Uganda, who acknowledged that first-world Germany has the edge when it comes to media resilience.
Mozambique recently faced a media blackout after elections in October, and Uganda and Ghana are trying to fight anti-gay laws.
The media tour, which also included civil society and government representatives, aimed to give African media professionals an insight into how Germany deals with disinformation. AI, fact-checking, funding, newsrooms, and more were hot topics.
But the topic was disconnected from the reality facing the visiting journalists. Africa is a continent with limited access to new technologies and often unable to keep up with rapid digital advances.
While AI is becoming increasingly popular in Western countries, fact-checking agency Africa Check has confirmed that South Africa's recent elections proved that AI-generated misinformation was not as high as expected.
This was not the case for German media such as Deutsche Welle (DW), Germany's state-run international broadcaster, which recognized the need for a fact-checking desk following the rise of disinformation.
Based on a presentation by Joscha Weber, founder of DW's fact-checking desk, AI will enable German media companies to take additional steps to cut off the supply of disinformation before it reaches their audiences. I did.
Germany has several laws and regulations in place to tackle artificial intelligence, with both national and European Union frameworks such as the General Data Protection Regulation and Cybersecurity Act to monitor the use of AI and disinformation. is reflected.
Germany's Digital Services Coordinator also said it had been actively fighting disinformation since it came into force.
For example, a video trending on social media showed German Foreign Minister Annalena Verbock surprised at not receiving a formal welcome upon her arrival in India. This video turned out to be misleading.
During the 2017 election, there were concerns that foreign, particularly Russian, actors were using AI-powered bots to spread disinformation and create division within Germany's political system.
Since then, Germany has leveraged the use of surveillance institutions in the form of organizations, websites, and laws to monitor the spread of information. They started from the starting point of dismantling disinformation through media literacy organizations like Lie Detector, which has introduced educational programs in several schools across Europe that promote media resilience against disinformation.
However, the resilience of German media will be tested in the run-up to elections scheduled for February 2025.
Although there is a disconnect between the availability of resources between the Global South and the West, African countries can learn from countries like Germany to confront disinformation as a shield if the continent catches up digitally. .
Like many other countries, Germany faces issues of public trust in the media, but Germans contribute financially to the media structure, according to experts who provided input during the visit. That's what it means.
Germans pay a mandatory fee of 18.36 euros, known as a monthly fee. land funk bait rug Fund German public broadcasters such as ARD, ZDF and Deutschlandradio. Much like the South African television license, in Germany there are serious penalties for non-payment of fees.
Taz, die.is a well-known German daily newspaper known for its progressive stance on social, political and environmental issues, funded and owned by readers through a cooperative since 1992.
It is difficult to know for sure whether funding structures indicate public trust in the media or legal obligations. In any case, it helped make the media more resilient. What African countries can learn from it.
