In its message commemorating World Press Freedom Day, which is celebrated on 3 May, ERCA salutes Angolan media professionals for their “resilience and ability to adapt” in a “less favourable economic and financial situation, which greatly affects the capacity of many media outlets to produce and cover news”.
The regulator states that all media professionals, regardless of their status, are called upon to work within the legal framework to safeguard citizens’ rights to objective, unbiased and impartial information.
It calls for the need to pay attention to current problems “linked” to the advent of new information and communication technologies, such as “false information, disinformation and hate speech, which are spread with some ease on digital platforms”.
The traditional media are responsible for “discouraging and countering this harmful trend of the current day”, promoting public debate through the dissemination of truthful facts, told clearly and reported in accordance with ethical principles and involving all stakeholders in the events to be reported, the message states.
“Impact of Artificial Intelligence on Freedom of the Press and the Media” is the motto of the celebrations of World Press Freedom Day 2025, as ERCA recalls, considering that “the full exercise of freedoms of expression, information and the press, enshrined in the Angolan Constitution, represents a commitment by the Angolan State” to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
ERCA also argues that despite the technological advances that are being observed, with a focus on Artificial Intelligence, “it is imperative that, in the exercise of their noble mission, media professionals do not allow themselves to be replaced by new technologies, no matter how advanced they may be”.
It also encourages the Angolan professional class to scrupulously comply with the Journalists' Statute, the Code of Ethics and Deontology and to implement Editorial Boards, “as self-regulation mechanisms and as a factor of balance in relations between professionals and employers”.
