The integrity dividend: The value of knowing

We are not short of information. We have never had more of it. Yet across the world, people struggle to answer the simplest questions: What actually happened? Who decided what? Is it true?

This is the paradox of our age. The most connected societies in history are also among the most vulnerable to confusion, manipulation and distrust. Information moves faster than accountability. Algorithms reward outrage before accuracy. Artificial intelligence generates plausible falsehoods at scale. In such an environment, the right to know is not just a matter of transparency; it is the heartbeat of freedom.

Without an accurate understanding of what is going on and what is being done in your name, the fog of deceit thickens and bad actors can mislead with impunity.

Society is most vulnerable when access to information is denied. Access Now and the #KeepItOn coalition documented 313 internet shutdowns in 52 countries in 2025, the highest number ever recorded. Shutdowns block journalism, silence communities and deny people potentially life-saving information.

Access to information laws are an anchor of information integrity, and UNESCO’s latest monitoring shows progress. Its 2025 survey showed that 141 countries have legal guarantees for access to information. But adoption is not implementation, and many countries still face practical gaps in oversight, appeals, enforcement, record-keeping and data management. Of the countries surveyed, 51 could not provide record-keeping data despite reporting to have systems or procedures in place.

Information commissioners and other overseers turn legal provisions into enforceable rights. Yet many of them are hampered by weak mandates, delayed appointments, budget cuts, political interference, limits on their powers and attacks on their independence. For access to information to work, these bodies must be protected by law, given adequate powers and resources and shielded from undue influence.

The gap was further confirmed by a 2025 test of access to information laws, jointly conducted by UNESCO and the Center for Law and Democracy. Across 146 identical requests in 76 countries, 38 percent received no substantive response, only 42 percent resulted in full disclosure and the average response time was 22 days. A similar exercise will be repeated this year to measure any change.

Access to information has to evolve, but examples of the shortcomings are everywhere, even in countries with well-intentioned legislation.

And in an information vacuum, brave and independent journalism is indispensable. Journalism distills information into public understanding. It investigates, interrogates, corroborates and contextualizes, but it also counters disinformation. It asks questions that some parties would rather avoid. And it gives citizens the means to participate meaningfully in public life.

The damage caused by disinformation is real. UNESCO estimates that individual disinformation cases can incur economic and social costs of $350 billion to $510 billion – annually, through weakened public health responses, distorted elections, delayed climate action, financial losses, reputational harm and the erosion of trust in institutions. Disinformation is therefore not just a communications problem. It is a governance risk, an economic liability and a direct threat to people’s ability to make informed decisions.

Public service broadcasters and independent news media organizations are a key counterweight to this problem. Their mandate is not to chase engagement at any cost, but to inform and serve all audiences. But they face the simultaneous pressures of fragmented audiences, declining trust, political interference, financial constraints, platform dependency and rampant false, synthetic and manipulated content. Their struggle to keep producing quality journalism is not a sectoral concern, it’s a democratic one.

The response must include renewed investment in public-interest journalism, editorial independence, fact-checking, open-source verification, media and information literacy and collaboration across borders. Just as falsehoods travel globally, so purveyors of trusted journalism must cooperate transnationally.

The information ecosystem would be poorer and much more fragile without public service media – but they cannot defend it alone.

On World News Day and the International Day for Universal Access to Information, the challenge is practical, and we call on all actors in the information space to do better:

• Governments must enforce access to information laws and protect independent oversight.

• Platforms and technology companies must take full responsibility for the information spaces they create, in total alignment with international human rights law.

• And media organizations of all stripes should always choose rigor over reach.

Free-flowing, reliable information is a shared benefit. But it depends on authorities that protect access to information, journalists who pursue truth above all else and citizens’ right to the facts. The integrity dividend is real, but it is only paid when all of us play our part.

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This piece was commissioned to mark International Day for Universal Access to Information and World News Day on Sept. 28. David Walmsley is president of the World Editors Forum and editor in chief of Globe and Mail. Mariya Gabriel is assistant director-general for communication and information at UNESCO. Liz Corbin is director of news of the European Broadcasting Union.