Paul Deegan: Real journalists matter in an AI world

Nunatsiaq News, an award-winning newspaper in Nunavut, recently reported that a so-called "news" website was posting AI-generated articles about the North by stealing real news stories produced by real journalists. The articles were supposedly written by Nunavut correspondent Leah Qammaniq — a fake journalist, with a fake photo, and a fake bio.

Louise Arbour warned us of fake news in her installation speech as Governor General. She said, "The lines between knowledge and belief, between truth and falsehood, between facts and assumptions, are increasingly blurred. AI could be threatening not only the way we live and work, but also the control we exercise over our own destiny."

The Government of Canada has recognized the problem as well. Its recent discussion paper, Enhancing trust in artificial intelligence through increased transparency, stated, "Canadians encounter news reporting, product reviews, and audio-visual content across the internet, often without any indication of whether it was written by a person, generated by an AI system, or produced through some combination of both … A particular concern within this broader landscape is that generative AI greatly enables the creation and dissemination of deceptive or misleading content."

According to a survey conducted for News Media Canada, 78 per cent of Canadians say they are concerned about fake news and disinformation, underscoring the growing value of credible, professionally produced journalism.

In the face of misinformation and disinformation and threats to Canadian sovereignty, identity, and unity, there is an urgent need to protect and control Canadian trusted, verified IP and to keep its value in Canada for Canadians.

Fact-based, fact-checked, trusted journalistic content is vital to a healthy democracy, and there are concrete steps the government can take to safeguard this pillar of our democracy.

First, clearly and unequivocally state that there will be no text and data-mining exception. Second, use the power of the federal procurement purse to ensure these companies stop stealing creator content through robust supplier commitments. Third, align with the U.K. competition authority's approach, which gives publishers an opt-out to control how news content is surfaced in Google's AI answers. Fourth, have the minister of industry direct the Competition Bureau to conduct a market study into Google's AI/search crawler. Fifth, introduce and pass bad bot legislation similar to the Stealth Bot Prohibition Act that is currently before the U.S. Congress.

National Newspaper Week 2026 runs from Oct. 4-10. It celebrates the people behind the news and reminds Canadians that trusted journalism is produced by real journalists, who report, investigate, verify, and write it. This year's program introduces "Al Gorithm," a fictional character that highlights an increasingly important distinction: an algorithm can decide what you see, but it doesn't sit through a council meeting, interview a local business owner, cover a championship game or hold decision-makers accountable.

Unsealed court documents in The New York Times' lawsuit against Microsoft and OpenAI show that executives privately described AI training on news content as "the largest theft of labour in human history" and admitted that their products posed an "existential threat" to news publishers.

With the industrial scale theft of copyright-protected news content by AI companies and threats to our cultural and digital sovereignty from the U.S., our federal government can help sustain real journalism by real journalists by maintaining the Online News Act (which is seeing $100 million flowing annually from Google to news businesses).

News publishers — large and small — hope François-Philippe Champagne, minister of finance and national revenue, will follow the recommendations of the Standing Committee on Finance for the 2026 Budget: "Support the sustainability and growth of newsroom jobs by maintaining the Canadian Journalism Labour Tax Credit at the current 35 per cent rate and expanding eligibility criteria to include owner-operators, employees in broadcasting, and partners in news businesses.

"Budget 2026 should also direct at least 25 per cent of federal advertising spending toward private-sector Canadian news outlets, address disparities in tax treatment for advertising, and extend the Local Journalism Initiative indefinitely to support the creation of original civic journalism in underserved communities.

"The committee further recommends that the Government of Canada protect Canadian news publishers' intellectual property in the context of artificial intelligence by requiring government AI suppliers to commit to the principles of transparency, consent, and attribution when using copyright-protected content, requesting that the Competition Bureau examine competition issues in search and AI markets, including crawler practices."

Digital and cultural sovereignty matter. Canadian stories matter. Facts matter. Real journalists matter.

Paul Deegan is president and chief executive officer of News Media Canada.

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