Day Two of Egypt Media Forum 2025 Kicks Off Under Theme “2030: Who Will Endure

The second day of the Egypt Media Forum 2025 began on Sunday under the theme “2030: Who Will Endure?”, drawing more than 2,500 journalists from Egypt, the Arab region, and around the world to discuss the future of media in an era of fast-paced technological change.

According to the forum’s organizers, this year’s edition explores how artificial intelligence and emerging technologies are reshaping journalism, challenging traditional practices, and redefining the way audiences consume information. “Technological transformation has become a driving force rewriting the future of media,” the organizing committee said. “Media institutions must take decisive steps to adapt in order to ensure their continued relevance and effectiveness.”

Described as an exceptional edition, the 2025 forum features leading journalists, editors, and media executives who are sharing experiences and strategies for innovation at both institutional and individual levels. The event is organized in partnership with prominent Egyptian, regional, and international organizations, highlighting Cairo’s growing role as a hub for dialogue on the future of global communication.

The opening day of the forum on Saturday featured a keynote address by United Nations Under-Secretary-General for Global Communications Melissa Fleming, who issued a stark warning about the impact of generative AI on journalism and public trust.

Speaking to an audience of media executives, journalists, and policymakers, Fleming cautioned that AI tools are fundamentally transforming how people access and consume information — often undermining factual accuracy and verified reporting. 

“These tools have been trained on the blood, sweat and tears of journalists,” she said. “They scrape and summarise reporting without credit or compensation — and even then, they cannot be trusted to deliver facts.”

Fleming described today’s information ecosystem as “increasingly toxic”, overwhelmed by misinformation, algorithmic bias, and synthetic content that threaten the credibility of professional media. “We are living in a time of plummeting attention spans and a war on facts and science,” she said. “Our troubled world needs accurate information more than ever — but few are receiving it.”

Citing data that 40% of people worldwide now avoid news, she warned that the dominance of AI-generated summaries and social media algorithms is “taking a blowtorch to already burned-out media finances.”

“AI summaries now top the results of all major search engines,” Fleming said. “Large numbers of young people rely on AI assistants for news. Every one of those trends is destroying traffic to news sites.”

Despite the challenges, Fleming expressed cautious optimism, noting that audiences tend to return to professional journalism when trust in online content collapses. She also highlighted growing industry pressure for AI companies to compensate news organizations for the use of their work in training datasets.

The UN communications chief reaffirmed the organization’s commitment to protecting media integrity through the Global Principles for Information Integrity, which aim to promote a “healthy information environment” and sustain public-interest journalism.

“Rigorous, professional journalists are the antidote to the poison flooding our information environment,” Fleming said. “It’s vital we ensure not only their survival, but their long-term future.”

Founded by Noha El-Nahass, the Egypt Media Forum has emerged as a leading regional platform for dialogue on media innovation and ethics. This year’s edition underscores that mission — uniting journalists, editors, and communication experts to confront one of the industry’s defining challenges: how to preserve trust and integrity in the age of AI.