The Association for International Broadcasting has submitted a response to UNESCO’s consultation on fair compensation for news, arguing that independent journalism must not become unpaid raw material for digital platforms and AI systems.

The Association for International Broadcasting has submitted a response to UNESCO’s consultation on Fair Compensation for News, setting out the interests and concerns of AIB members in a fast-developing area of media policy.

UNESCO’s consultation examines how news organisations should be compensated when their journalism is used by digital platforms, search engines, aggregators and artificial-intelligence systems. AIB’s response was submitted on behalf of members and has been acknowledged by UNESCO.

AIB argues that fair compensation for news must be seen as a question of media sustainability, freedom of expression and democratic accountability – not simply as a commercial negotiation between publishers and technology companies.

Independent journalism requires sustained investment in reporters, editors, producers, fact-checkers, correspondents, legal review, safety, technical infrastructure and editorial governance. AIB’s submission stresses that this work enables journalism to hold power to account, counter disinformation and provide trusted information to audiences around the world.

The response highlights the growing challenges faced by broadcasters and other media organisations whose journalism is being indexed, summarised, repurposed or used to train and support AI systems without adequate payment, transparency or attribution.

AIB’s submission calls for UNESCO’s final guidance to recognise the full range of journalistic output produced by modern media organisations, including television, radio, podcasts, video, audio, scripts, transcripts, subtitles, images, metadata, archives and multilingual services.

It also argues that digital platforms and AI actors should provide meaningful transparency about how news content is used. This includes whether content has been retrieved by bots or crawlers, used to ground AI-generated answers, cited as a source, displayed to users, and whether users have then engaged with the originating news organisation.

AIB’s response makes clear that publicly funded journalism should not be treated as free raw material for commercial technology products. Public-service, publicly funded, commercial and mixed-model media organisations all require sustainable economic foundations if they are to continue producing trusted, independent journalism.

Simon Spanswick, Chief Executive of AIB, said:

“This is a critical issue for every organisation that invests in original journalism and factual content. Search engines, digital platforms and AI systems derive significant value from professional news output, but the organisations that create that journalism are too often left without fair payment, meaningful attribution or proper data about how their work has been used.

“AIB’s role is to ensure that the voice of international broadcasters and media organisations is heard in these global policy discussions. Journalism that holds power to account can only exist if it is properly and sustainably funded.”

AIB’s submission also supports the need for granular consent, so that media organisations can permit conventional search indexing while refusing AI training, AI-generated summaries or other forms of reuse. It calls for enforceable safeguards, rather than reliance on voluntary technical systems alone.

The response further emphasises the need for accuracy, context and editorial integrity. AI-generated answers and search summaries can misstate facts, strip journalism of essential context or oversimplify complex reporting, potentially damaging trust in both the originating news organisation and journalism more broadly.

AIB will continue to work with members on the implications of AI, platform power, content licensing, attribution and fair value exchange for journalism.

AIB members can request a copy of the submission from the Secretariat. Organisations interested in joining AIB and contributing to this work can contact the Association at contactaib@aib.org.uk

​