Agence France-Presse Global News Director Phil Chetwynd says news agencies still matter because facts, verification and on-the-ground reporting cannot be replaced by AI summaries or social media. In an opinion piece published in Dawn on September 25, 2026, he argued that the newsroom costs of professional journalism remain necessary, especially when false images and misinformation spread quickly online.
Why the piece says trusted reporting still matters
Chetwynd wrote that news agencies have repeatedly been declared obsolete over the past two decades, first with Twitter and later with Facebook and social media-driven citizen reporting. He said that optimism faded when governments shut down the internet or jailed citizens, and when algorithms began amplifying anger, outrage and lies rather than truth.
He also linked the argument to current AI tools, saying chatbots such as ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Grok can scan journalism in seconds and produce what he described as an AI Overview. According to the piece, these overviews are reducing traffic to trusted news sites and often do not pay for the reporting they use.
The Nepal floods example AFP cites
To show why field reporting still matters, Chetwynd referred to a late-August glacial collapse that triggered flash floods along the Nepal-Tibet border and left more than 1,300 people dead. He said AFP deployed 11 journalists to remote parts of Nepal and India.
According to the article, three Kathmandu-based journalists — Prakash Mathema, Anup Ojha and Prabin Ranabhat — reached the area within an hour of police confirmation of the first major flooding. The writer said they knew the language, terrain and people, and carried cameras and drone equipment.
He added that one photographer made a 13-hour journey by motorbike and truck to reach the main disaster zone, then used contacts to take an aid helicopter deeper into the area. His drone images of destroyed villages were then published worldwide, the piece said.
Fact-checking, deepfakes and the cost of verification
The opinion piece said remote disasters often happen where there is no internet, making it necessary for journalists to be on the ground and to rely on local source networks. It also said that while one part of the Nepal team went to the mountains, others stayed in Kathmandu to separate fact from rumour as reports of the dead and missing emerged.
Chetwynd wrote that first reliable words and pictures from such disasters often come from agencies like AFP, Reuters and AP. He said clients trust that the material is gathered ethically and under transparent charters and trust principles.
The article also warned that alongside real images from the Nepal disaster zone there were many deepfake images showing artificially generated destroyed villages and bodies lined up for burial. It said AFP employs more than 100 journalists solely to debunk and fact-check false content.
“Would you like your news with or without hallucinations?”
The piece ended by saying that defending truth and facts costs money and requires values, and that international news agencies remain an essential part of the global information system. It noted that the opinion piece was commissioned as part of the World News Day campaign, which falls on September 27.
