World News Day: 21 Great Op-Eds on Why Journalism Matters
On Monday, September 28, more than 1,000 news organisations in 106 countries will mark World News Day by showing how their journalism makes a difference. Ahead of the day, the campaign has published a strong collection of op-eds from veteran journalists, editors and media leaders, including Tina Brown, Lionel Barber and AFP’s Phil Chetwynd. They cover the threat of AI and misinformation, press freedom under pressure, reporting from exile and war zones, the climate crisis, and why local news still counts.
All of the op-eds are free to republish with appropriate credit. Read the full collection at worldnewsday.org/stories, or start with the list below.
- The Integrity Dividend: The Value of Knowing by David Walmsley (World Editors Forum / Globe and Mail), Mariya Gabriel (UNESCO) and Liz Corbin (European Broadcasting Union)
- Journalism & Our Chaotic World’s Future by Branko Brkic (Project Kontinuum) and Tina Brown (Truth Tellers)
- Football’s enduring controversies show why journalism matters by Stig Ørskov, CEO of WAN-IFRA
- Media faces violence, persecution and the existential threat posed by AI – and yet we are still here by Marcelo Rech, Executive President of the Brazilian Newspaper Association (ANJ)
- Democracy Needs Journalism in Every Language by Anna Mae Lamentillo, Founder of Paraluman News, The Philippines
- India’s students found their voice this summer while journalists are losing theirs by Ritu Kapur
- Dystopia, Inc: Would you like your news with or without hallucinations? by Phil Chetwynd, Global News Director at AFP
- Truth in an AI World by Michael Miller, Executive Chairman of News Corp Australasia (Embargoed: not for publication before September 28, 2026)
- A lesson from Ukraine: Newsroom resilience makes press freedom real by Oksana Brovko, CEO of the Association of Independent Regional Press Publishers of Ukraine
- Free press needs alliances against censorship and fragmentation by Natalia Antelava
- Thank goodness for the storytellers – the ones who probe, question, irritate the powerful by Meera Selva, CEO of Informed
- America Was the Arsenal of Democracy; Now It’s Disarming the Press by Lionel Barber
- When information is everywhere, and the reasons to give up are so many… journalism matters even more by Garry Pierre-Pierre
- Remembering 9-11 as a local news story by Charles M. Sennott
- Independent News Media Need More Than Short-Term Funding by Caroline Vuillemin, Director General of Fondation Hirondelle
- Nicaragua: Reinventing Journalism in Exile by Carlos Fernando Chamorro, Director of Confidencial and 2024 Golden Pen of Freedom Laureate
- The things I learned from my daughters, a central bank investigation, and a box of watermelon gum by Alia Ebrahim, Co-founder and CEO of Daraj.com
- The role of the news media in fighting the climate crisis by Kyle Pope
- Journalism is Civic Infrastructure. We need to support it. by Alberto Ibargüen
- We must make truth matter again by Fernando Belzunce, Editorial General Director of Vocento
- 2026 World News Day: Time to fight by Branko Brkic
