Park Jong-hyun (C), president of the Korean Journalists Association, poses with Vietnamese journalists at the World Journalists Conference 2026 held in Seoul, South Korea on March 30, 2026. Photo: Contributor
Discussions took place in two sessions titled “Democracy and Journalism at the Crossroads: The Role of Media in Times of Crisis” and “AI in Newsrooms: From Practice to Next Steps.”
Park Jeong-hyun, president of the Korean Journalists Association, said that amid the ongoing tensions that erupted between the United States, Israel, and Iran in late February, misinformation and hateful content have been widely spread, and stressed the need for journalists to report accurately and objectively.
“Journalists report events, but they also report points of light,” Park said.
“When those lights come together, the world becomes brighter.
“We have to be considerate and warm to our viewers.”
Participants exchanged opinions and professional experiences on covering major world events and applying technology, especially AI, to journalism.
Many say AI is already widely deployed in newsrooms around the world, raising questions about how to best support journalists in processing data, verifying information, and creating multimedia content faster and more efficiently.
Speakers agreed that AI should be used to complement journalists by maximizing its strengths while limiting its weaknesses, and stressed that AI cannot replace human judgment or accountability.
They said the goal of using AI in journalism is to better meet increasingly diverse audience demands for information.
The annual conference has been hosted by the Korean Journalists Association since 2013 with support from the Korean Ministry of Culture, Sports, and Tourism, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the Korea Press Foundation.
