Qatar News Agency joins Xinhua-led AI standards initiative for journalism

Qatar News Agency has joined a Xinhua-led Global Media Initiative as a founding partner, committing to help develop shared standards for artificial intelligence in journalism. The initiative, unveiled during the opening of the seventh World Media Summit in Beijing, pairs the standards effort with a voluntary Global Media Cooperation Framework for news organizations adopting responsible AI practices.

Qatar was represented at the summit by QNA Director-General Ahmed bin Saeed Al Rumaihi. The initiative is intended to support the exchange of expertise and best practice, joint verification, collaborative research and capacity-building, while allowing participating organizations to bring their own experience to common approaches for emerging news-production technology.

The framework is based on multilateral cooperation and is designed to be updated with contributions from participating institutions. QNA's fellow founding partners include TASS, Vietnam News Agency, Rossiyskaya Gazeta, the Union of OIC News Agencies, Independent Online, teleSUR, Bernama, Andina, Uganda Broadcasting Corporation and Tunis Afrique Presse Agency, alongside several Chinese media organizations.

The launch came after calls at the summit for shared ethics-based AI rules, as we reported on Nov. 6 when South African media chairman Iqbal Surve urged news organizations to turn individual newsroom codes into wider guidance. The meeting's stated theme was “Media in the Intelligent Age: From Consensus to Action.”

Hosted jointly by Xinhua and the Beijing Municipal People's Government, the summit brought together nearly 500 representatives from close to 330 media outlets, think tanks, government bodies and international organizations across 112 countries and regions. Its discussions focused on AI's effects on the credibility of news and on cooperation between media organizations.

Delegates identified misinformation, privacy breaches, algorithmic bias and digital inequality as risks associated with AI. They stressed that human verification, fact-checking and editorial judgment should remain central even as newsrooms adopt the technology. Discussions also covered technological access, the sharing of resources and the role of Global South countries in shaping technology-governance rules.

The summit runs through Nov. 9. Organizers have said its expected outputs include the Beijing Consensus of the seventh World Media Summit and a 2026 report on artificial intelligence and global media development.