press freedom

South Asia is one of the world’s most populous regions and home to rapidly advancing economies. Combine that with linguistic diversity and rapid adoption and proliferation of technology, and you have a group of countries whose AI policies will have…

Few policy approaches in the region explicitly discuss journalism and the information space. Deepfake and synthetic media regulations, transparency, data privacy and mitigating algorithmic bias receive a large amount of attention, as does increasing technological capacity. 

Between January 2022 and June 2025, 14 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa had adopted AI strategies or policies. Our review did not uncover any AI legislation adopted during this time period, but Namibia is reportedly drafting an AI bill. 

AI regulation in the Middle East and North Africa is largely at the nascent stage, but it promises to have large impacts on the journalism industry.

The most significant law, the European Union’s Artificial Intelligence Act, is set to be implemented by 27 member states, nine candidate states and potentially three more countries.

Five policies we reviewed in this region mention journalism or journalists, more than any other region we reviewed.

Most AI proposals in the United States are taking place at the state level and focus on mitigating harms stemming from AI systems. Canada has witnessed less activity on AI regulation, especially after the Artificial Intelligence and Data Act’s failure…