Afrimaas Urges Media to Protect Founders at World Radio Day Summit: A Deep Dive into Ghana’s Media Future

On February 13, 2026, as the global community commemorated World Radio Day, a pivotal summit in Accra, Ghana, shifted the focus to a critical, often overlooked component of the media ecosystem: the founder. The African Media Support Initiative (Afrimaas) used the platform to issue a direct challenge to media practitioners and stakeholders: to adopt greater responsibility for protecting and sustaining the very individuals who establish and lead media organizations. This call to action framed a day of intense discussions on the existential threats and transformative opportunities facing Ghana’s broadcasting and digital media landscape.

Key Points: The Core Messages from the Summit

The summit yielded several urgent and interconnected takeaways for media leaders, policymakers, and journalists:

• Founder Protection as Strategic Priority: The viability of media houses is intrinsically linked to the well-being and security of their founders and entrepreneurial leadership.
• Funding Crisis: Traditional revenue models are collapsing, creating an operational crisis for many radio stations and media outlets.
• AI: Tool or Threat?: A consensus emerged on the need for ethical AI integration in newsrooms, balancing innovation with journalistic integrity.
• Trust Deficit & Disinformation: Declining public trust and the rampant spread of misinformation demand a coordinated response focused on media literacy.
• Collaborative Salvation: Survival requires unprecedented collaboration between journalists, regulators, civil society, and investment entities.

Background: Understanding Afrimaas and the World Radio Day Context

The African Media Support Initiative (Afrimaas)

Afrimaas is an organization established with a clear mission: to bolster struggling media organizations across Africa. Its operational pillars include providing training, facilitating commerce and venture building, and engaging in policy advocacy. Its formation is a direct response to a continent-wide trend where media outlets, particularly radio stations—a primary source of information in many regions—are grappling with plummeting advertising revenues and soaring operational costs. By supporting the business and strategic capacities of media owners, Afrimaas aims to create a more resilient and independent press.

World Radio Day 2026: “Radio: A Century of Informing, Entertaining and Educating”

Proclaimed by UNESCO in 2011, World Radio Day celebrates the unique power of radio as a medium for freedom of expression, access to information, and cultural diversity. The 2026 theme, marking a century since the first commercial radio broadcasts, prompted reflection on radio’s past and its future in a digitizing world. The Accra summit, organized by Afrimaas in partnership with local media entities and the Ghana Commission for UNESCO, was a key national observance, bringing together a cross-section of the media ecosystem to address the theme’s practical implications for Ghana.

Analysis: Deconstructing the Summit’s Critical Discussions

The summit was not merely a ceremonial gathering but a working conference focused on tangible solutions. The speeches and panels revealed a sector at a crossroads, acknowledging profound challenges while charting a path forward.

The Founder as the Foundational Vulnerability

Raymond Smith, Business Leader of Afrimaas, delivered the summit’s ideological cornerstone: “Nobody speaks for media, media speaks for people.” This powerful inversion highlights the media’s role as a public servant. However, he argued, this service is jeopardized if the structural integrity of the media organization itself is compromised. The “founder” represents the initial vision, risk-taking capital, and long-term stewardship. When founders are overburdened by financial instability, legal pressures, or security threats, the institution’s ability to fulfill its public mandate weakens. Protecting the founder, therefore, is not about aggrandizing individuals but about safeguarding the institutional health of the entire media outlet. This includes ensuring legal frameworks that protect editorial independence, access to financial safety nets, and personal security protocols for those in leadership who face intimidation for their outlet’s reporting.

The Dual Crises: Economics and Technology

Two powerful, often converging, forces were identified as primary stressors:

• The Revenue Abyss: Abeiku Santana, the veteran broadcaster, spoke from decades of experience, noting that “Radio survives on trust.” Yet, trust alone does not pay salaries or transmitter bills. The migration of advertising spend to digital platforms (often foreign-owned tech giants) has eviscerated the traditional revenue base for local radio and print. This economic precarity forces painful choices between staff layoffs, quality reduction, and, in worst cases, closure.
• The AI Paradigm Shift: The summit presented a stark dichotomy in perspectives on Artificial Intelligence. Osman Tahidu Damba, representing the Ghana Commission for UNESCO, issued a stark warning: “AI is a tool, not a voice.” His caution, aligned with UNESCO’s Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence, emphasized that AI must not replace human journalistic judgment, ethical sourcing, or accountability. Over-reliance risks homogenizing content, amplifying biases in training data, and eroding the human connection essential for trust. Conversely, Efo Mawubge urged broadcasters to see AI as a formidable ally. Used ethically, AI can automate transcription, analyze audience data for better engagement, generate basic reports, and free journalists for investigative and analytical work. The critical distinction is between using AI for augmentation (enhancing human work) versus automation (replacing human roles).

The Disinformation Epidemic and the Media Literacy Imperative

A recurring theme was the corrosive impact of disinformation on public discourse and the credibility of legitimate media. Participants agreed that fact-checking alone is a losing battle against the volume and speed of falsehoods. The long-term solution lies in proactive media and information literacy (MIL), particularly targeting youth. This involves educating audiences not just to consume information passively but to critically evaluate sources, understand algorithms, and recognize manipulation techniques. Media organizations have a role to play in this education, moving beyond mere reporting to fostering a more media-literate citizenry.

Practical Advice: Actionable Strategies for Media Stakeholders

Based on the summit’s discourse, here is a roadmap for different actors in the media value chain:

For Media Founders and Owners:

1. Diversify Revenue Streams Aggressively: Move beyond traditional ads. Explore direct audience support (memberships, donations), branded content, events, and niche subscription services for premium content.
2. Build an “AI Ethics Charter” for Your Newsroom: Develop clear, written policies on AI use. Define what is permissible (e.g., draft summaries, data analysis) and prohibited (e.g., AI-written articles without human byline, automated social media engagement). Train staff on these policies.
3. Invest in Trust as a Business Asset: Systematize transparency. Publish corrections prominently, disclose sources of funding for specific reports, and engage in community forums. Trust can be a differentiator that attracts loyal audiences and ethical advertisers.
4. Form or Join a Founder Protection Collective: Create peer networks for sharing security protocols, legal resources, and crisis management strategies. Collective advocacy can also lobby for favorable policies and tax regimes for small/medium media enterprises.

For Journalists and Content Producers:

1. Embrace Entrepreneurial Skills: Understand the business side. Learn basic digital marketing, audience analytics, and project management. Your value increases when you can demonstrate how your work contributes to sustainability.
2. Become MIL Educators: Integrate media literacy into your reporting. Create explainer segments on how to spot deepfakes, the economics of social media platforms, or the importance of local news. Host school outreach programs.
3. Advocate for Ethical AI: Be a vocal internal advocate for human-centric AI use. Push back against management mandates to replace reporters with bots. Propose pilot projects that use AI to enhance, not replace, your work.

For Regulators and Policymakers (e.g., Ghana Commission for UNESCO, NCA):

1. Create a “Public Interest Media Fund”: Establish a transparent, arms-length grant or low-interest loan facility specifically for small and independent media outlets to invest in technology, training, and business model innovation.
2. Mandate Platform Accountability: Develop regulations that require major digital platforms (social media, search engines) to be transparent about their algorithms and to share a fair portion of advertising revenue with local news publishers whose content drives engagement.
3. Integrate MIL into National Curriculum: Work with the Ministry of Education to make media and information literacy a core subject from junior high school onward.
4. Protect Digital Infrastructure: Advocate for and invest in affordable, reliable nationwide internet access as a fundamental prerequisite for a digital public sphere and media business viability.

FAQ: Common Questions About Media Sustainability and AI

Why is the “founder” specifically mentioned, and not just “media owners” or “CEOs”?

The term “founder” carries a specific connotation of the original visionary and risk-taker. In many African media contexts, especially in radio, the founder is often a journalist or community leader who started the station with a public service mission, not just a business investor. They are the symbolic and operational heart of the outlet. Protecting them acknowledges that their personal safety, legal security, and financial stability are directly tied to the outlet’s survival. It’s a call to see beyond the corporate entity to the human element at its core.

Is the panic about AI replacing journalists overblown?

The panic may be overblown regarding total replacement in the near term, but the concern about significant disruption is very valid. AI excels at pattern recognition, data processing, and generating basic content. This threatens routine reporting jobs (e.g., financial summaries, sports recaps, simple news briefs). The future for human journalists lies in what AI cannot do: investigative reporting, source development, ethical judgment, narrative storytelling, emotional intelligence, and holding power to account. The danger is not that AI will write all news, but that media owners, desperate for cuts, will use AI to de-skill the newsroom, leading to a homogenized, low-quality information ecosystem that loses public trust.

How can small radio stations in rural areas compete with global digital platforms?

They compete not on a global scale, but on a hyper-local one. Their advantage is deep community trust, local language broadcasting, and an understanding of hyper-specific issues. Their strategy must be: 1) Hyper-Local Content: Be the indispensable source for community news, events, and voices that global platforms ignore. 2) Multi-Platform Presence: Stream online, use WhatsApp groups for community alerts, and have a simple social media presence to engage younger diaspora. 3) Community Revenue Models: Develop local business sponsorships, host community events, and offer paid public service announcements (PSAs) for NGOs and government agencies. 4) Advocacy: Form associations to collectively negotiate with telecoms for better transmission rates or to lobby for a share of universal service funds.

What specific legal protections can be enacted for media founders?

Legal protections can be both general and specific. Generally, strong constitutional guarantees for freedom of expression and press freedom are the bedrock. Specifically, laws can be enacted or enforced to: 1) Criminalize Attacks on Media Premises/Personnel: Ensure swift prosecution of violence or intimidation against journalists and owners. 2) Shield Sources and Editorial Processes: Robust “shield laws” that prevent courts from forcing journalists to reveal sources or forcing owners to disclose editorial decision-making records in civil cases. 3) Protect Corporate Veil: Prevent the use of legal harassment (vexatious lawsuits, regulatory fines) to target a media company by piercing the corporate veil to attack the personal assets of founders without just cause. 4) Transparency of Ownership: Laws that reveal the true beneficial owners of media outlets can deter corrupt or authoritarian takeovers aimed at silencing critical voices.

Conclusion: An Ecosystem in Need of Holistic Care

The 2026 World Radio Day summit in Accra, catalyzed by Afrimaas, delivered a clear and urgent diagnosis: Ghana’s media ecosystem is suffering from a systemic illness. The symptoms—falling revenues, distrust, technological disruption, and disinformation—are interconnected. The proposed cure is not a single silver bullet but a holistic, multi-stakeholder approach. Central to this approach is the recognition that founders are the keystone species of the media habitat. Protecting them through financial instruments, legal safeguards, security protocols, and peer support is an investment in the entire ecosystem’s health.

The summit ended with a resonant call for radio and digital platforms to leverage their influence for “peace, national cohesion, and informed public debate.” This is the ultimate purpose. Achieving it requires moving from rhetoric to resilient business models, from fear of AI to ethical mastery of it, and from isolated struggle to collaborative strength. The future of Ghana’s media—its ability to inform, entertain, educate, and hold power accountable—depends on the actions taken today to protect its founders and, by extension, its foundational mission.

Sources and References

• UNESCO. (2025). World Radio Day 2026: Official Theme and Resources. Paris: UNESCO Publishing.
• Ghana Commission for UNESCO. (2026). Statement by Secretary-General Osman Tahidu Damba at the Afrimaas World Radio Day Summit. Accra.
• African Media Support Initiative (Afrimaas). (2026). Concept Note: Protecting the Founder – Securing the Future of African Media. Accra.
• UNESCO. (2021). Recommendation on the Ethics of Artificial Intelligence. Paris: UNESCO.
• Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism. (2025). Digital News Report: Ghana. University of Oxford.
• Life Pulse Daily. (2026, February 16). “Breaking News: Afrimaas urges media to protect founder at World Radio Day summit.” Life Pulse Daily.
• Interviews and