By: Kanto
Kai Okanta
An adviser to Gabon’s
Minister of Digital Economy, Digitalisation and Innovation, Sarah Awa ABOUNA
MBOU, has called for greater emphasis on making public information accessible,
understandable and verifiable as artificial intelligence accelerates the spread
of false, misleading and manipulated content.
ABOUNA MBOU made the call in
a statement marking the International Day for Universal Access to Information
on September 28, whose 2026 theme focuses on preserving the integrity of
information in the digital age in the face of information disorder.
“Publishing information is
not enough to make it accessible,” she said, arguing that information can exist
without being effectively accessible to the people seeking it.
She cited examples including
a press release buried in a 40-page PDF, an unexplained figure or a decision
announced without sufficient explanation as situations where information exists
but remains difficult to access.
“As a communications advisor
to the Minister of Digital Economy, Digitalization and Innovation of Gabon, I
put it this way: the integrity of information is built first in the person who
publishes it, then in the person who reads it,” ABOUNA MBOU said.
She identified three
conditions for information to be considered accessible: it must be found,
understood and verified.
On access, ABOUNA MBOU cited
figures showing that 2.2 billion people remain offline globally, with 96% of
them in low- and middle-income countries. She said 71.9% of Gabon’s population
uses the internet, while 28% remains offline, representing about 730,000
people.
She said publishing
information therefore requires authorities and other publishers to consider
channels and formats that can be accessed by everyone, including people using
simple mobile phones.
ABOUNA MBOU also pointed to
Gabon’s young, urban and highly connected population, citing a median age of
21.5 years, an urban population of 91.6% and mobile connections equivalent to
126% of the population.
“A young, urban and highly
connected country no longer only has an issue of access, it has an issue of
integrity,” she said.
She called for stronger
media and information literacy, particularly among young people, to equip
citizens with the ability to verify, evaluate and cross-check information.
On verification, ABOUNA MBOU
said the challenge for the estimated 6 billion people online is increasingly
linked to the speed at which content can be produced.
She referenced a UNESCO and
Centre for Law and Democracy global test concerning requests made to public
authorities in countries with a right to information law, citing 42% of full
disclosures, 38% of requests without any response and about 2% of explicit
refusals.
“The problem is silence,
much more than refusal,” she said, adding that verifiable information should
have a source, a date, an identified manager and official archives that
preserve it.
ABOUNA MBOU said the right
of access to information should be accompanied by an obligation on the part of
those who publish information.
“Publishing is not
informing. To inform is to make verifiable,” she said.
She concluded that Gabon’s
young and connected population requires public information accessed through
digital platforms to be accurate, sourced and dated, describing this as a
central responsibility of public communication in the age of artificial intelligence.
