That's not the first time I've seen someone claim that a journalist claim is allowed to perform some kind of information processing that's off limits to regular people. These claims are specious and ridiculous. Journalists do not form a distinct class with special privileges, even if they claim to be one.
”Journalists in many nations have some privileges that members of the general public do not, including better access to public events, crime scenes and press conferences, and to extended interviews with public officials, celebrities and others in the public eye.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reporter%27s_privilege:
”Reporter's privilege in the United States (also journalist's privilege, newsman's privilege, or press privilege), is a "reporter's protection under constitutional or statutory law, from being compelled to testify about confidential information or sources."”
Also, in some (¿many, I would think, but I don’t know stats?) countries the justice system will weigh the right of the public to know against law infractions when deciding whether to prosecute journalists who performed crimes in order to gather information.
For an example, see the pentagon papers (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentagon_Papers). All concerned knew the information was top-secret and stolen, but in the end, nobody got convicted for publishing them.
There is no such thing as a "licensed journalist" because such licensing has been historically used to limit freedom of the press. However, there is an implicit understanding of what constitutes being a journalist that is similar and it is displayed when Judges choose whether or not to force a journalist to reveal their sources.
The core idea is that intent matters. Building such an app to create public discourse by someone with a clear history of journalistic actions is likely to face different regulatory penalties than an individual with no such history who builds such an app for entertainment or profit.
Edit: There is argument to be made that this "soft licensing" serves to extert control over journalists.
For the love of god can we please stop pretending that every country on the planet is the US.