A case for eyewitness journalism in the age of AI-generated news
Julie Pace, Executive Editor of The Associated Press, used her keynote address at the Overseas Press Club’s Annual Awards Dinner in New York to make the case for original, firsthand reporting in today’s volatile information landscape. Her central argument was disarmingly simple: ‘News doesn’t reveal itself from a distance. It has to be witnessed.’
Pace pointed specifically to the work of Mariam Dagga, a Palestinian journalist whose photojournalism documenting hunger in Gaza was honoured with the OPC’s Robert Capa Award — and who was among five journalists killed in an Israeli strike on 25 August. The human cost of that commitment to proximity was not abstract. ‘When we talk about the importance of being on the ground — of eyewitness journalism — we’re not talking about an abstract idea,’ Pace said.
The remarks carry particular weight for news media organisations and their industry bodies at a time when trust is fracturing and audiences are fragmenting. Pace warned that ‘at a moment when people are already questioning who and what to trust, compromising our principles doesn’t strengthen or help preserve journalism — it weakens it. It doesn’t make the public trust us more — it leads people to view us with more suspicion or disdain.’
On AI specifically, Pace was direct: in an era where text and images are being generated instantly and at scale, eyewitness journalism is not a legacy virtue but a competitive and democratic necessity. ‘We have to show people why what we do is different,’ she said. ‘The truth doesn’t arrive on its own. Someone has to be there to witness it.’
