As AI accelerates wartime misinformation, fact-checkers across Gaza, Ukraine and Lake Chad are finding that the most effective defence still depends on human networks, local knowledge and shared verification infrastructure.

Despite the promise of digital technologies to amplify voices and expand media reach in the Global South, structural barriers, such as political repression, technological dependency, and persistent digital divides, continue to limit their impact. Real progress requires not only technological adoption but also institutional reform, stronger journalistic capacity, and independent ethical frameworks to challenge dominant Western media narratives.

Does a journalist have the right to critique their own employer? It is a striking irony that they report on global crises while remaining silent about their own industry's fragility: stagnant wages, eroding professional values, and profit-driven ownership. Journalists must realize that confronting this internal rot is not just a right, but a necessity to save the profession from extinction.