Governance as the Key Question of the Coming Years: A Scholarly Dialogue With Guilherme Canela on Freedom of Expression, Artificial Intelligence, and the Future of Information Governance

In this scholarly dialogue for Media, Technology, and Governance , Guilherme Canela reflects on the centrality of governance in contemporary debates over media, technology, and the global information ecosystem. Drawing on his long-standing work with journalists, governments, civil society, regulators, judges, researchers, and international organizations, Canela situates freedom of expression, access to information, and digital transformation within a broader human rights framework. The conversation begins with Canela's professional trajectory from Latin America to UNESCO headquarters in Paris, then turns to the challenges posed by generative artificial intelligence, platform power, journalism's economic viability, and the need for multistakeholder governance. Canela argues that although technologies change, the principles of journalism, human rights, transparency, accountability, and meaningful participation remain essential. He also calls for scholars to study information and journalism as public goods, the growing attacks on accountability systems, and the ways academic evidence can inform policymaking without sacrificing independence. The dialogue concludes with a message to researchers: governance is the key topic of the coming years, and the academic community is needed to provide the evidence, concepts, and critical debate required to meet that challenge.