Oby Ezekwesili, former minister of education, says the decline of independent media is eroding transparency and accountability across the world.
In an X post on Sunday, Ezekwesili warned that the collapse of trusted news sources is weakening democratic institutions and undermining economic development.
“Regrettably, independent media is fast becoming extinct—and that’s no news to us Nigerians and other Africans,” Ezekwesili said.
“We daily experience less trusted sources of media information, thereby worsening the evasion of transparency and accountability by governments.”
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The former minister described the “media credibility crises” as a “deepening malignancy” that must be addressed urgently, adding that information is as vital to development as education and health.
THE OPEN LETTER TO GOVERNMENTS
Ezekwesili is a member of the high-level panel on public interest media, convened by the Forum on Information and Democracy.
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Last week, she joined 10 other global economists, including Nobel laureates Joseph Stiglitz and Daron Acemoğlu, in an open letter urging governments to prioritise investment in public interest media.
Released on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, the letter argued that economies cannot function without independent, verifiable information.
“Public interest journalism provides a vital supply of such information: it exposes corruption, fraud, and market manipulation, brings stability to financial markets, checks misinformation, and empowers economic actors to make informed investments,” the letter reads.
The experts warned that the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) is fuelling disinformation and making societies more vulnerable to manipulation.
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To safeguard democracy and growth, the panel recommended that governments should invest in new models to support and protect free and independent media.
The panel also called for the development of information industrial policies to shape resilient media ecosystems in the digital era.
“Without decisive action, our information ecosystems will continue to deteriorate rapidly, weakening the benefits of the AI revolution and threatening both global prosperity and social welfare,” the letter added.
Other signatories of the letter are Mariana Mazzucato, Diane Coyle, Philippe Aghion, Atif Mian, Andrea Prat, Francesca Bria, Vera Songwe, and Tim Besley.
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