Lagos maritime journalists urged to use AI without surrendering judgment
A one-day MMCDC training presented AI as a reporting aid while stressing independent verification, privacy and accountability.
Maritime journalists in Lagos were urged to use artificial intelligence to accelerate reporting and deepen analysis, while retaining responsibility for verification, context and editorial judgment.
The Maritime Media and Capacity Development Centre, or MMCDC, held a one-day executive training programme focused on incorporating AI skills into daily newsroom work. It was designed to improve productivity and shorten news-production time without sacrificing originality, accuracy or truth.
Sesan Onileimo said the technology was changing how news is gathered, processed, verified and distributed. For journalists covering ports, shipping, logistics and regulation, he said, AI could support research, transcription, translation, data analysis, content development and multimedia production.
That assistance is particularly relevant to a beat that requires reporters to interpret technical, regulatory and economic issues. The programme said AI could organise and analyse maritime data, including cargo throughput, vessel turnaround times and operational costs, helping reporters produce more analytical, evidence-based and investigative work if they supply verification and context.
Onileimo nevertheless cautioned against treating generated material as sufficient evidence. Journalists should confirm claims and sources, and independently check images, recordings and video before publication, he said. Credible reporting should also rely on official records, dependable documents and independent sources rather than AI-generated information alone.
The training highlighted misinformation, fabricated images, deepfakes, plagiarism, copyright concerns and data-privacy breaches as risks of newsroom use. Onileimo warned participants not to upload confidential documents, unpublished investigations or sensitive information about sources to AI platforms.
Adebayo Babatunde told the session that AI was intended to assist journalists rather than take their jobs, by reducing time spent on repetitive tasks, supporting investigations and improving newsroom efficiency. The Guardian reported that AI-generated news videos could cut production time for some stories to 10 to 20 minutes, while cautioning that excessive dependence could expose private information and create copyright risks.
The Conversation identified a broader approach in African newsrooms, where editors have used AI for transcription, headline writing, translation, summarisation, drafting and content preparation while retaining human editorial control. The study noted that fluent AI output can still contain inaccuracies, bias, weak context, plagiarism or unverifiable sourcing.
MMCDC is a capacity-development arm of First Mediacon Network Limited, and described the training as part of the company’s corporate social-responsibility work. The session followed a commitment made during the 10th anniversary of the Annual Seminar for Maritime Journalists in December 2025 and was intended to usher in the seminar’s 2026 edition. Emmanuel Maiguwa, chief executive of Brooks Training Institute, provided the venue free of charge.