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MEDIA +CIVIL
SOCIETY=SUSTAINABLE
JOURNALISM& HUMANRIGHTS
2PEOPLE, POWER, TRUTH – HUMAN RIGHTS, CIVIL SOCIETY & THE MEDIA IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Journalists alone cannot savejournalism, and civil society
activists and human rights
defenders alone cannot
defend civil space. This
is why multi-stakeholder
coalitions, as well as
regional and international
networks, constitute an
essential pathway to identify
and deliver solutions tothe complex challenges
confronting both media
systems and civil society.
Coalitions can provide
opportunities for media andcivil society to work in a morestrategic and coordinatedmanner on relevant issues,and to build the political willneeded to sustain progress.

A free and vibrant media and civil society are no
doubt key agents of democracy. However, themedia and rights-based civil society organisations’activities are often the first to be restricted when
democracy is under attack. The ability of theseorganisations to withstand these restrictions
and deliver on their respective mandates istherefore vital. This ability is compromised by anumber of factors, such as the professionalismof the organisations; their sustainability andindependence; the availability and diversity of theirresources; their access to security; the reliabilityof their communication; their access to community
narratives; the strength of their networks; theefficacy of their structure; the support they enjoy;
and the capacity they have for collaboration andjoint action.
As a response to these needs, the Consortium to
Promote Human Rights, Civic Freedoms and MediaDevelopment (CHARM) Africa project was initiated in
December 2019, funded by the Swedish International
Development Cooperation Agency (Sida). It brings
together six regional partners, namely Fojo Media
Institute, Wits Journalism, CIVICUS, Civil Rights
Defenders, DefendDefenders and Hub Afrique.
With joint actions, the aim is to strengthen coalitionbuilding between civil society, media and humanrights defenders in sub-Saharan Africa. The
project facilitates collaborations between existing
like-minded organisations, aspiring to meet thegrowing need for media, civil society and humanrights organisations to think strategically and ally
with research institutions, policy organisations,
thinktanks and actors in the digital sphere whohave the ability to contribute with new skills andexperiences.
This anthology – PEOPLE POWER TRUTH – is an
important part of this ongoing effort. It brings
together the ideas of different thinkers in the
media space, civil organisations and human rights
activists. It is also a starting point for a CHARM
think tank that will display good practices andideas on coalition building.
It is our hope that these articles will serveto stimulate thought and debate and lead to
discussions and deliberation between civil society
activists, media practitioners, private sector andgovernment representatives on how to engage
in coalitions, jointly building democratic andsustainable structures for the well-being of oursocieties.

PEOPLE, POWER, TRUTH – HUMAN RIGHTS, CIVIL SOCIETY & THE MEDIA IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

3

When the CHARM
consortium approached
me to ask if I would beinterested in taking on
this project as Editor, myheart truly skipped a beat.
Here was an opportunity
to try and make the link
between journalism, civilrights, social justice andhuman rights – all areas I
have worked in, and know
would have incredible
power if they entered intotransparent coalitions.

Journalism, civil rights groups and humanrights defenders are witnesses to and servantsof society. Their intention is always to shine alight, to make visible and to improve the world
for humanity. Sometimes they fail; sometimes,
they are at the very heart and centre ofstimulating change and improving the world.
In the new, more connected global world weface, with all its significant challenges, it isever more important that these groups and theplatforms they have function optimally, and in
the service of bettering society.
It is the thinking of those at the forefront ofthese fields that we can be better. That we can
improve – by working together, on the criticalissues that face and impact the entire globe,
and that will determine what type of world thenext generation will inherit.
Thank you to all those who contributed tobringing this publication to light. Despite
demanding schedules, Covid-19 complications,well-deserved festive season breaks andcontinued human rights challenges, our writers
met their deadlines and helped enrich thecontent within these pages.
Each one of our contributors has come to thematter from a particular angle, making theoverall offering an inspiring collection of ideas
and proposals – ideas and proposals that wehope are only the start of the conversation.

Anso Thom, Editor of
People Power Truth.

The contributions take the reader from thebirth of civil groups in a virgin democracy in
Sierra Leone, to bringing our attention to theincredible positive contribution of women in
Africa during conflict periods. They tell thestories of the work of amaBhungane, where
advocacy and journalists show how they canlive in symbiosis; of Magamba Network, who
use arts and culture to fight a repressive regime
in Zimbabwe; of DefendDefenders, who assist
human rights activists in East Africa and thehorn of Africa; and of the work of the National
Coalition of Human Rights Defenders, whochampion safety, security and the well-being of
human rights defenders in Kenya.

Jamlab and CIVICUS tell the story of theirefforts to strengthen civil society. We getinsight into the hugely impressive work of the
Spotlight publication in South Africa, which
produces compelling, in-depth public-interest
health journalism. And key contributors andexperts in the field – such as Samwel Mohochi,
Lars Tallert, Retha Langa, Anne Koch, MarkLee Hunter and Anton Harber – share theirthoughts, ideas and inspiring perspectives.
I am deeply grateful to Sofie Gulberg, Lars
Tallert and the CHARM consortium for having
the insight to start and to stimulate such a
critical debate. This publication will achieve an
important goal if it advances the discourse on
this issue.
Our society will no doubt be better served bya strengthened coalition of impactful, creative,
credible and vibrant media, civil society groups
and human rights activists. When functioning
optimally, these groups serve as an incredibly
important cornerstone of democracies aroundthe world and even more so on our beloved
continent.
Anso Thom

Joseph Kabiru, Innovation for Change/Africa Hub

Lars Tallert, FOJO Media Institute, Linnaeus University

IS IT FEASIBLE?

6

TRANSFORMINGTRADITIONAL JOURNALISM
INTO SUSTAINABLE
JOURNALISM
40

Dr Yemisi Akinbobola, African Women in Media

Tshepo Tshabalala, Journalism and Media Lab(Jamlab), University of the Witwatersrand

The case for the coalitionof media and civil society inthe fight for civic space

SEEING AFRICANWOMEN IN MEDIA
12COLLABORATION,DISRUPTION &INNOVATION
48

Marcus Low, Spotlight

A UNIQUE MODEL OF
PUBLIC INTERESTHEALTH JOURNALISM
82

Fojo Media Institute
Linnaeus University
SwedenPublished: Kalmar, Sweden, March 2021
Editor: Anso Thom

Murray Hunter, amaBhungane Centre forInvestigative Journalism, South Africa

SHOULD JOURNALISTSDO ADVOCACY?
16

Samm Farai Monro, Magamba Network

CREATIVITY IN THE FACE
OF CLAMPDOWNS
23David Kode, CIVICUS

STANDING WITNESSTO HUMAN RIGHTS
DEFENDERS
52

Samwel Mohochi, Defenders Coalition

INTEGRATING JOURNALISTSINTO THE HUMAN RIGHTS
DEFENDERS AGENDA
58

Retha Langa, Africa Check

Anne Koch, Global Investigative Journalism Network

THE WAR AGAINSTMISINFORMATION
DEMANDS A
GROUP EFFORT28

INVESTIGATIVEJOURNALISM &ADVOCACY:
NATURAL ALLIES?
64

Proofreading: Dave Buchanan
Photo sourcing: Joyrene Kramer
Art direction & design: Karien van derWesthuizen, the earth is round
Printing: Rob Print
Produced in Cape Town, South Africa
The content of the publication is copyrightprotected. Fojo Media Institute is happy toshare the text in the publication with you
under the Creatice Commons AttributionShareAlike 4.0 License
ISBN: 978-91-89283-53-4 (print)
978-91-89283-52-7 (web)This project is a publication by Fojo Media
Institute, part of the project Consortium to
Promote Human Rights, Civic Freedoms andMedia Development (CHARM) Africa, fundedby the Swedish International Development
Cooperation Agency (Sida). The project
confronts and engages of issues related to theshrinking space of democracy. This involves
joint actions between various roleplayers bystrengthening coalition building between civilsociety, media and human rights defenders in
sub-Saharan Africa.

Dr Mark Lee Hunter & Anton Harber
Memory Bandera, DefendDefenders

FRIENDS & PARTNERS
34

THE MOSTMEANINGFULIMPACT IS THOUGHCOALITION
72

Funded by

IS ITFEASIBLE?
The case for the coalition of media andcivil society in the fight for civic space

Joseph Kabiru argues that in many historic cases on the African continent,
the media and civil society organisations have worked together – with impactful results.
He writes that the partnership may be amorphous, but in the future it might definea well-organised and structured coalition, as the two parties are the central pillarof a country’s civic space.

In May 2000, The Economist
magazine splashed a damning
headline across its pages,
indicting the African continent
as having failed – politically,
economically, and socially.
“Hopeless Africa,” screamed
the headline of the 11 May
edition. The article focusedon Sierra Leone, which wasengulfed in a dreadful, neverending civil war.

“Indeed, since the difficulties of helping Sierra Leone
seemed so intractable, and since Sierra Leone
seemed to epitomise so much of the rest of Africa, itbegan to look as though the world might just give up
on the entire continent,” noted the article.
The symbolism of Sierra Leone could not escape theattention of the average reader. Former slaves fromthe Americas birthed the country; and by the 19th
century, the West African nation was touted as a
beacon of hope.
In May 2002, Sierra Leone steadfastly began its
journey towards becoming a democratic country.
It held its second democratic elections after apeace settlement had been reached, ushering in a
new dispensation. Indeed, in 2018 we witnessed apeaceful transfer of power from one political party
to another.
The Economist article might have been harsh, to
say the least; but what it missed was the 1990s
renaissance that set the stage for the opening of thecivic space, as evidenced by the multipartyism wavethat swept across the continent.
The 1990s saw the media, citizens, women’s groups,
civil society organisations and opposition groups
clamouring for change and urging governments
to open up civic space and respect human rights,
freedom of expression, and freedom of association,
among a litany of other civil liberties.
Pressure from the international community
also forced authoritarian leaders to abolishobstructionist government policies and start
opening up the civic space.
Niger, Ivory Coast, Kenya, Madagascar, Malawi,
Cameroon, Benin, Togo and Mali are some of the
sub-Saharan African countries that ushered in
multipartyism, following pressure mounted by civilsociety organisations and the media, among others.
And 11 February 1990 will remain a memorable day
for Africa, as former South African leader Nelson
Mandela was released from prison. One year later,
the African National Congress won an electoral
majority in the country’s first free elections, andMandela was elected South Africa’s president.
Activists, the media, and many other players helped
in toppling South Africa’s racist system of apartheid.
And in 2011, The Economist ran a cover story underthe banner “Africa Rises,” which noted that thecontinent’s economic exploits were on the upswing,with improved governance.

6

PEOPLE, POWER, TRUTH – HUMAN RIGHTS, CIVIL SOCIETY & THE MEDIA IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICAPEOPLE, POWER, TRUTH – HUMAN RIGHTS, CIVIL SOCIETY & THE MEDIA IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Joseph Kabiru is the Advocacy
and Communications Officer, I4C(Innovation for Change) – Africa Hub.

7

Photo: Peter Turnley/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images

February 11, 1990 will always remain a memorable
day for Africa, as former South African leader
Nelson Mandela was released from prison.

8

PEOPLE, POWER, TRUTH – HUMAN RIGHTS, CIVIL SOCIETY & THE MEDIA IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICAPEOPLE, POWER, TRUTH – HUMAN RIGHTS, CIVIL SOCIETY & THE MEDIA IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

9The 1960s marked theend of colonialism
for many Africancountries. Over the
decades since, themedia and civil society
organisations have
proved to be criticalactors in ensuring that
Africa’s civic space issafeguarded.

The long road
How had this come about? The 1960s marked theend of colonialism for many African countries.
Over the decades since, the media and civilsociety organisations have proved to be criticalactors in ensuring that Africa’s civic space issafeguarded. They have played an essential
part in connecting government institutions,policymakers and the general public, andhave played the critical role of watchdog when
accountability is needed.
These two key players – the media and CSOs –played a significant part in the push for reform.
The latter provided a narrative, while the former
delivered a channel for the narrative. And they
continue to do so: for example, they ensure thatnecessary checks and balances are imposedon the government or powerful ruling elite;
and they promote social and economic growthand democracy, promote freedom of speech,
and protect and strengthen civic space andparticipation, among other goals.
It is no wonder that journalists and activists suffer
the most in the fight to open up civic space inAfrica. On the verge of holding its presidential
elections, Uganda is an excellent example of this.
But there are many examples of the power ofjournalism and activism. In Kenya, for instance,
the agitation of political pluralism began inearnest in the 1980s. In 1991 the late Daniel
Toroitich Arap Moi capitulated and forced therepeal of Section 2A, paving the way for the firstmultiparty elections in 1992. This constitutionalchange also allowed the introduction of term
limits for the Presidency.
How did this happen? Following the abortive 1982
coup, Moi had tightened his grip on government,
and launched a massive crackdown on
government critics and dissidents. He undermined
the rule of law and respect for human rights in
Kenya and completely stifled the civic space,eventually becoming a ruthless dictator.

10

involved in the push for constitutional reforms
between 1999 and 2005. The media, activists andthe clergy were at the forefront of this initiative.
It ushered in a new era, which saw civic spaces
opening up for democratic engagement in theconstitutional reform process. Kenya’s 2010
Constitution is now considered among the mostprogressive constitutions in the world in terms ofguaranteeing basic human rights.

emergence of people journalism, or citizen
journalism. A good example is how social
media played a part in the recent ‘Arab Spring’
uprisings: the fall of Tunisian president Zine
El Abidine Ben Ali and Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak
were attributed mainly to Facebook andTwitter. Networks formed online were crucial inorganising a core group of activists, specificallyin Egypt.

The media and CSOs played a critical role in theconstitution-making process. But despite their
massive success, such coalitions always have
limitations; the Ufungamano Initiative saw most of
its leading lights co-opted by the government.

However, traditional or legacy media still hassome advantages over the new media; factchecking remains the most significant.

In his 2012 thesis titled ‘The power and limitsof social movements in promoting politicaland constitutional change: the case of the
Ufungamano Initiative in Kenya (1999-2005)’,
Jacob Mwathi Mati, a senior lecturer at Sol Plaatje
University, aptly notes: “While holding so much
power and promise, movements are limited intheir ability to affect fundamental changes insociety. Even after substantial gains in challenging
the state, the Ufungamano Initiative wasvulnerable and agreed to enter a coerced merger
with the state-led process in 2001. The merger
dissipated the Ufungamano Initiative’s energy.”
From this account, one can safely deduce thatthe media and CSOs only coalesce when theirinterests are threatened. Indeed, the media andCSOs view each other with suspicion; eachaccuses the other of pursuing different agendas,
partly because of their business models.
While externally funded CSOs may advocate forthe opening up of civic space, the media careabout the bottom line. Secondly, the media always
accuse CSOs of advancing a foreign agenda. The
CSOs, on the other hand, blame the media fornot clearly understanding their role in the CSO
ecosystem.
It gets even more complex: the majority of themedia houses are owned by the political class,further undermining the impact of such media
houses in fighting for or safeguarding the civic
space.

But ad hoc social movements were cobbled
together, made up of the opposition, the clergy,
media intellectuals, CSOs, and academia. They
applied pressure on the government to open up
the civic space.

What works

One such successful coalition was the
Ufungamano Initiative, a powerful movement

But despite these challenges, all hope is not
lost. The advent of social media has seen the

PEOPLE, POWER, TRUTH – HUMAN RIGHTS, CIVIL SOCIETY & THE MEDIA IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

The Innovation for Change (I4C) Africa Hub’s
vision is to protect, respect, strengthen, expand,and recover civil society space. The Hub’s vision
for success is to build a support and referrals
system that is more demand-driven, from thefield and the various organisations, individuals,
and groups – whether they are communitybased, networks, grassroots or technicalorganisations – who might require specificsupport or services.
The Africa Hub has begun a collaborative
initiative of working closely with media acrossthe continent. This strategic partnershipencompasses a range of initiatives – such as
facilitating media data festivals, which involve
journalists training on how to harness data intheir work and how to combat fake news during
the Covid-19 pandemic.

The Economist cover, 13 May 2000.

In 2020, despite the pandemic’s challenges,
we encouraged journalists to participate in thethematic webinars we facilitated across thecontinent, and to participate as partners. We arealso planning to facilitate interviews with leading
human rights activists across the continent’s five
major regions. As we advance in our mandate,
we are in the process of identifying areas ofmore resonant and meaningful collaboration.
The partnership may be amorphous; however,
we feel that in the future these nascent steps
may help to define a well-organised andstructured coalition.
In conclusion, there is still an opportunity forthe media and CSOs to coalesce and pursue
common interests. it should not escape usthat the two together are a central pillar ofa country’s civic space. They still research,
advocate in the public interest, and speak out
regarding civic threats.

PEOPLE, POWER, TRUTH – HUMAN RIGHTS, CIVIL SOCIETY & THE MEDIA IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

11

SEEINGAFRICANWOMEN IN
MEDIA

Dr Yemisi Akinbobola argues that African women continuously
demonstrate an impact and contribution towards peace and development on thecontinent. They are also invisible; and narratives about conflict in Africa are skewed
towards a perspective that Africa and its people lack the agency to successfully
silence the guns. She works to highlight thesestories and make them visible.

She Stands for Peace: 20
Years, 20 Journeys was abook that emerged from acollaboration between the
African Union Commission
and the United Nations Office
to the African Union. It aimed
to commemorate UNSCR
1325 by documenting thestories of 20 African women,
and women organisations,
who through their own
efforts have contributed tothe implementation of the
Women, Peace and Security
agenda in Africa. I was the
Editorial Consultant, andworked with the women totell their stories.

Their stories demonstrated to me the varying
levels of impact and contribution African womencontinuously make towards peace and developmenton the continent. They also demonstrated how
little we know of these stories, and the extent towhich narratives about conflict in Africa are skewed
towards a perspective that Africa and its people lackthe agency to successfully silence the guns.
The stories of these heroines demonstrated varying
levels of individual, community and collective
strength, resilience and determination towards
transformative change in their communities, in a waythat both international and local media are yet tocapture fully. And therefore, these women – the 20
featured in the book, and so many others – remain
largely invisible in stories around peacebuilding andconflict resolution in Africa.
My first task as editorial consultant on She Stands
for Peace: 20 Years, 20 Journeys was to find thewomen who had been nominated to be featured– and it was hard. They were not visible on all theusual platforms with which you would expect a
researcher to start their research: Google, news
websites and social media.
I recall the story of a woman in Libya, who had
been so instrumental in claiming peace in her
community through her bravery. Inspired by her
story, I dug deep into my network, reaching out tolocal journalists, fixers and networks in the region,
people with extensive sources and networks; and in
the end, despite all our efforts, we were never able tofind this woman so that she could tell her story. She
therefore never made it into the book. Just consider
for a moment how many such stories are dropped
from publications and documentation because ofthis lack of visibility?
It is this kind of invisibility that my nongovernmental organisation, African Women inMedia (AWiM), sought to address with its aptly
named Visibility Project: a project developed inpartnership with Wikimedia Nigeria Foundation.
The objectives of the Visibility Project are simple:
to increase the number of African women visible on
Wikipedia, and the number of African women who
are Wikimedia editors.
Prior to the launch of the Visibility Project in July
2019, the statistics for women representation on
Wikipedia were not good - just 17% of Wikipedia
profiles were those of women. In Nigeria, forexample, only 2 000 Wikipedia profiles existed
for Nigerian women. Across the three Wikimedia

12

PEOPLE, POWER, TRUTH – HUMAN RIGHTS, CIVIL SOCIETY & THE MEDIA IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICAPEOPLE, POWER, TRUTH – HUMAN RIGHTS, CIVIL SOCIETY & THE MEDIA IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICADr Yemisi Akinbobola is the cofounder of African Women in Media,
and a senior lecturer at Birmingham
City University. She holds a PhD
in Media and Cultural Studies, andhas a research interest in Gender,
Media and African Feminism(s).
She is an award-winning journalist
with experience in communications
management roles for charities.

13

trainings and editathons that we did in 2020 under
the Visibility Project, 300 women journalists weretrained as Wikipedia editors, and 598 new profiles ofAfrican women were created.
The next time someone does a Google search
about African women during Covid-19, African
women in media, or African women and labour
migration in Africa – among other topics wecovered in the editathons – some of these women
will surely come up!
The politics of visibility of women is important in
the media discourse of the Women, Peace andSecurity Agenda (WPS) – both in terms of therepresentational voices of women survivors ofconflict and for ensuring their perspectives arevisible, but also in considering the role women in
media can play in ensuring this visibility. However,in order for us to consider the role women in media
might play in the WPS agenda, we must also
consider how both the media and the state treat
them. It is not just a question of whether womenjournalists should be playing a more active rolein the WPS agenda, considering the central role
women play in peacebuilding as recognised by
UNSCR 1325.
The fact is, women journalists are playing arole. We just need to be better at capturing their
lived experiences, and the extent to which theenvironment is enabling for them or otherwise.
At the annual African Women in Media conference
on 7 December 2020, multi-award-winning
Sudanese journalist Amal Habbani pointed outthat many women journalists covering peace andsecurity in Sudan do so anonymously, and on poor
pay – some earning as little as $20 a month. These
women journalists also do not use their bylines,
for fear of retribution – something that Amal iswell aware of, having been detained by Sudanese
authorities 15 times herself.
The African Union’s Agenda 2063 Aspiration
4 aspires to a “peaceful and secure Africa”.
Recognising the central role women play in conflict
prevention and mediation efforts in Africa, the AU
established FemWise-Africa (Network of African
Women in Conflict Prevention and Mediation).
Similarly, there is a commitment to change thenarrative of Africa and build the Africa we want.
So when we speak of media in relation to peaceand development, and ask if Africa is on the righttrack, I question the extent to which the narratives

14

constructed in media – both on the continent andinternationally – are truly making the invisible
visible, as opposed to the repeated use of the samenarratives and the same voices. When we speak of
the role African women journalists should play inthis, I question the extent to which gender biases
and stereotyping in the workplace disempower
women journalists from simply being able to do theirjobs in the first place.
Recent research (2020) by AWiM and Fojo Media
Institute, which surveyed 125 journalists across 17
African countries, found that the allocation of roles
and resources in newsrooms is often gendered, thus
impacting on the ability of African women journalists
to report on topics such as politics. Additionally, I
question the extent to which partisanship and ethnic
divides in media ownership in some countries – andtheir impositions on press freedom – disempower
journalists from being fully able to be active
mediators of peace and development; the danger
here being that when we are not objective or
unbiased in our reporting, we unwittingly interferewith conflict resolution processes.
It is important that the media is able to successfully
document, monitor and report on continental andnational mechanisms put in place to promote peace,security, and development on the continent. And
creating enabling environments for press freedom
and for women journalists constitutes a reliable tool
for monitoring how well African countries comply
with the treaties they sign up to, and for monitoring
their progress in achieving Aspiration 4, and also
serves as a means to obtaining data that will support
journalists in performing their functions. In this,
therefore, the safety of journalists is paramount.
Lastly, I’d like to come back to the visibility of African
women in peacebuilding and conflict resolution.
Their stories matter – not just because they
deserve the visibility, but because understanding
the lived experiences of female victims andsurvivors of conflict can guide the expansion of
campaigns geared towards the creation of enabling
environments where gender-based violence can beprevented.

Photo from She Stands for Peace: 20 Years, 20 Journeys © SIHA Network.

The fact is, womenjournalists areplaying a role. We justneed to be better at
capturing their lived
experiences, andthe extent to which
the environment isenabling for them orotherwise.

AWiM launched its niche news publication
AWiMNews in 2020. AWiMNews produces
news and analysis on ‘African women andmedia’; thus, it promotes African women’svoices and issues, and aims to increase media
discourse on the issues of African women.

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Two young Sudanese women
breaking gender stereotypes
as small appliances mechanics
in Khartoum, Sudan.

15

There is no doubt that an
investigative media outfit
with an advocacy programme
may raise eyebrows. But
amaBhungane has scoredmajor wins for transparency
and free speech.

SHOULDJOURNALISTSDO ADVOCACY?
Is there a role for advocacy work in support of journalism?
Should journalists do advocacy? Murray Hunter argues that it is of criticalimportance they do, and that it is possible to have journalism and advocacy working
alongside each other – and that it strengthens the end-product, as it does in the case of
the amaBhungane Centre for Investigative Journalism.

In early March 2020, halfway through a two-month‘caretaker’ stint as the advocacy coordinator
for the amaBhungane Centre for Investigative
Journalism, I received a wonderful document in an
email from our lawyers. It was a two-page court
order – the details of which I’ll come to, because
they tell an important story about amaBhungane’s
advocacy work.
AmaBhungane is known for its long-form
investigations of money, politics, and abuse of powerin South Africa. This dogged approach – taking
weeks, months or even years to chase down astory – has resulted in major exposés over the years,
and more than a few awards. In 2019 for example,
the group was part of a consortium of news
organisations that received the Global Shining Light
Award for the #GuptaLeaks investigation into the
sprawling network of corruption surrounding South
Africa’s former president.
What many people don’t realise is that theorganisation also hosts an advocacy programme,
which adopts the same tenacious approach
to slowly push for reforms in policy and law inorder to improve the climate for journalism itself.
Through its unique approach to advocacy, a staff
member – part researcher, part policy wonk,
part campaigner – works (mostly on a parallel
track to amaBhungane’s investigators) to secure
the information rights that are the lifeblood ofinvestigative journalism.
In South Africa, access to information and freedomof expression are to a large extent protected in law;
but bureaucrats, politicians, and private firms often
flout the rules all the same.
Over the years, amaBhugane’s programme has
blossomed into an impressive portfolio of work,
including submissions on legislative amendments(four last year), access-to-information requests (13in 2019) and share-register inquiries (more than 40
last year), as well as strategic litigation on mediafreedom issues (four active cases at the moment).
You can access our advocacy work and our legal
documents via our Virtual Library.
It is also important to understand what the
programme isn’t: amaBhungane does not do‘advocacy journalism’, or advocacy about its
journalism. Many who read amaBhungane’s
investigations into the corruption of former
president Jacob Zuma organised protest marches
calling for his resignation – but amaBhungane did
not join them.

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Murray Hunter is a media consultant
and digital rights advocate; hewas previously a coordinator of
the Right2Know Campaign inSouth Africa, and the author ofa children’s book about digitalsurveillance. Hunter writes here
for the amaBhungane Centre forInvestigative Journalism, where he
was acting advocacy coordinatorin February and March 2020.

17

Photo: Xabiso Mkhabela/Anadolu Agency/Getty Images

Revelations of corruption sparked national protests
for the removal of Jacob Zuma in 2017 when he waspresident of South Africa. Thousands gathered in Cape
Town on April 07, 2017 demanding his resignation.

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19

The slow road to transparency
Much of the programme’s work is as unglamorousas the creature for which amaBhungane isnamed – ibhungane, the dung beetle.
Like many of their global counterparts,
amaBhungane’s journalists use freedom of
information requests as part of their investigative
toolkit. But in a climate where close to two-thirds
of information requests are refused or simply
ignored, many requests drag on long after any story
has been filed.
Someone has to follow that process, to work thephones, to ensure recalcitrant officials eventually
file a response; and should the response not be
positive, someone must draft the appeal. By having
a designated advocacy coordinator who is not tied
to conventional newsroom duties, amaBhungane
is able to pursue information requests not only inservice to a story, but in pursuit of the principle oftransparency itself.
This brings me back to the court order that landed
in my inbox in March. Since 2015, amaBhungane
has been trying to get details about coal-mining
rights nationally. It started with an information
request, which was refused. AmaBhungane filed anadministrative appeal, which succeeded; but the
documents never arrived.
In 2017 a court ordered that amaBhungane should
get the documents. Still they didn’t come. Finally, inlate 2019, a judge ruled that the officials responsible
were in contempt of court. At long last, in March,
our lawyers received a copy of that contempt order,
which directed those two officials to hand over the
documents or pay R100 000 in fines. Personally.
The outbreak of Covid-19 may have bought those
officials just a bit more time; and perhaps if those
documents eventually arrive, they won’t ever make itinto a story. But the next journalist who calls up themining department asking for information may find amuch more thoughtful official on the other end of thephone. It took five years to happen, but like I said:
long-form.

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overturn years of abuse and secrecy in the state’s
spying machinery, after the revelation that state
spies had bugged the phone of Sam Sole, one of ourmanaging partners.
If the organisation can uphold the landmark victory it
won in the lower courts, it will result in major privacy
reforms to protect investigative reporters and the
public at large.
But most of amaBhungane’s advocacy work takes
place out of sight, and without fanfare – wonkishsubmissions to policy processes in Parliament,
asking for a secrecy clause to be struck from anenergy bill, say, or proposing better transparency
provisions in party-funding regulation.

Now more than ever,journalism must beable to fight for itself.
And amaBhungane’s
unique advocacy
model allows thegroup to do just that.

All this is done without compromising its journalism.
The advocacy work and the investigative work run
parallel to each other, though there is not the hard‘firewall’ that one hears about at the news andopinions operations at The New York Times, forexample. We talk and keep one another updated.
In the very early days of amaBhungane, theadvocacy work was a part-time role; our first
advocacy coordinator split her time between
advocacy and reporting. It was an unhappyarrangement which worked to the detriment of both.
By having a dedicated advocacy coordinator, theorganisation can ring-fence both the work (so that
amaBhungane’s journalists do not have to involve
themselves in lobbying and campaigning) and theworkload (so that the journalists can get on with,well… journalism).
But the organisation and its journalists are especiallysensitive to the risk of being seen as partisan –even more so after the emergence of coordinateddisinformation and smear campaigns against
amaBhungane and other media organisations, whichstarted in the lead-up to the #GuptaLeaks reports
and never really went away.

Policy fights big and small

It’s ironic that amaBhungane, with its declaredadvocacy programme, could be seen as partisan
and campaigning, when many of South Africa’s
commercial newsrooms appear to have beendrawn into messy factional wars that have led to anindustry-wide ethics inquiry.

Some of amaBhungane’s advocacy work is the
stuff of major, history-making, precedent. Its
current Constitutional Court challenge to South
Africa’s surveillance law, for example, seeks to

I’ve worked alongside amaBhungane’s advocacy
programme for nearly a decade as an informationrights activist, and have seen the organisation prove
its integrity over and over again.

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Traditional
investigative
journalism has sought
to keep advocacy outof the newsroom. But
this is a time in which
doing journalism is
not enough to secure
journalism’s future.

If anything, my sense is that the organisation’s
reluctance to be seen as ‘crusading’ creates asilence about its advocacy work, in which Twittertrolls are more than happy to craft their own
narratives.

Covid-19 clampdowns
The global crises sparked by Covid-19 suggest that
advocacy for journalism is more important thanever. For starters, the pandemic has brought new
obstacles to the flow of information.
For example, despite strong legal protections
for the principle of open justice, the pandemic
has led to serious transparency challenges
in South Africa’s court systems. Access tocourt records was unreliable even before
Covid-19 restriction; now, it is even more so.
As court hearings have moved to video call
platforms, Cherese Thakur (who succeeded me
as amaBhungane’s advocacy coordinator) has
been haunting the phones and inboxes of court
officials to try and get the schedules of court
hearings published online ahead of time, as a basic
condition for ensuring court processes remain open.
Out in the streets, in the chaotic weeks following
South Africa’s ‘lockdown’, journalists documented
appalling brutality by police and soldiers sentout to enforce it; and in several instances were
harassed, stopped from filming, and even fired atwith rubber bullets.
Don’t miss amaBhungane’s advocacy updates. Sign
up to receive our free newsletter at amabhungane.org.
But surely the greatest crisis for journalism in thismoment is economic; and media advocacy toaddress the economic devastation being felt innewsrooms is needed urgently. Though many haverisen to meet the reporting challenge of our time,
many may not survive it.

African National Editors’ Forum, has initiatedresearch into the policy questions in recent years.
If ever there was a role for advocacy work insupport of journalism, this is it.
Traditional investigative journalism has sought tokeep advocacy out of the newsroom. But this is atime in which doing journalism is not enough tosecure journalism’s future. Now more than ever,journalism must be able to fight for itself. And
amaBhungane’s unique advocacy model allows thegroup to do just that.

LATE-BREAKING
On Thursday, 4 February 2021, the Constitutional
Court handed down a decision in South Africa
which has already received worldwide acclaim. It
found in favour of amaBhungane in a landmark caseinvolving the collision between the right to privacy
and the right of the state to engage in surveillance.
The court ruled that the Regulation of Interception ofCommunications and Provision of CommunicationRelated Information Act (Rica) is unconstitutional
because it did not provide sufficient safeguards toprotect the privacy of citizens. It also confirmed thatbulk surveillance is unlawful in South Africa.
Edward Snowden responded to the high court
judgment in this case in a tweet, simply saying“Wow”.
We should all have the same reaction to the decisionof the Constitutional Court. At last, the country’s
surveillance laws will have to take privacy rights
seriously.

Even before the pandemic, it already seemed
unlikely that mainstream journalistic outlets would‘innovate’ their way out of the harsh financial
climate without major regulatory interventions: toprovide public grants to media organisations, give
tax credits to companies that buy ads or levy taxes
off the tech giants, or any manner of other policy
response.

CREATIVITY
IN THEFACE OF
CLAMPDOWNSIn Zimbabwe, you have no option but to be creative. When you’re facedwith a repressive regime, an ever-imploding economy and aruling party that thinks it owns the country, you don’t exactly haveloads of options, writes Samm Farai Monro from Magamba Network.

AmaBhungane’s advocacy work has yet to venture
into this space – although SANEF, the South22

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In Zimbabwe, you have no
option but to be creative.
When you’re faced with arepressive regime, an everimploding economy and aruling party that thinks it
owns the country, you don’t
exactly have loads of options.

Plus, the ruling party – Zanu PF – controls the only
TV channel in the country, and most radio stations.
And is now intent on taking over independent
newspapers too. So creativity in the face of all thisseems like a no-brainer. A different way of doing
things is the only real option.
And so Magamba Network was born, our networkthat works on the cutting edge of arts, digital media,
activism and innovation. Magamba Network wasborn at a poetry slam.
Its co-founder, Tongai Makawa (AKA Outspoken)
had seen my dreadlocked, cocky self on TV talking
about how I was the dopest poet around; and hedecided to come and battle me at the House of
Hunger Poetry Slam – a slam that a few other poets
and I had launched as a space for rebellious free
expression in the pre-social media age.

Photo: LUIS TATO/AFP via Getty Images

And so we battled. With words. With a dozen otherferocious young poets. Through the first round. And
the second round. Until it was just me and him in the
final. And we tied – according to the dubious judges.
So we had to split the prize, which was a quarterchicken and chips and a book. I was hungry, so I
took the chicken and chips. Outspoken was hungry
for knowledge, so he took the book. And that’s when
we realised we could work together – and the idea of
Magamba Network was born.

Early days
2007. The year before 2008. Which as everyone
knows, was the year Zimbabwe entered the record
books for having the highest-ever inflation rate.
(Take that, Weimar Republic.) It got to the pointthat it would cost you a trillion dollars to buy a beer.
Wallets were no longer of any use, as you had towalk around with a backpack to hold all your wads
of useless Zim Dollar notes.
So yeah, 2007 was the pleasant environment inwhich we decided to launch Magamba. At the time
Robert Mugabe had been the only President I had
known my whole life (and I was 28), the country was
still reeling from World Bank neoliberal reforms inthe ‘90s, and Zanu PF had rigged and beaten their
way to remaining in power.

Zimbabwean anti-riot police look at a
supporter of the opposition party Movementfor Democratic Change (MDC) taking part ina protest against alleged widespread fraud
by the election authority and ruling party.

Me and Outspoken saw how much disillusionment
there was among young people. How there were somany NGOs, but so few that spoke to young people
in a language that they understood, and that could
inspire them to take action.

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Samm Farai Monro AKA Comrade
Fatso is Zimbabwe’s trailblazing
political satirist, a leading activist
for freedom of expression and amedia disruptor. Comrade Fatso
is founder of Magamba Network,
one of Zimbabwe’s most dynamic
organizations working on the cuttingedge of culture, media, activism
and innovation. As a satirist he is
the co-creator of the internationallyacclaimed Zambezi News satire
show and the weekly political news
show The Week. Comrade Fatso’ssatirical work has been highlighted
and featured on CNN, BBC, Channel
4 (UK) and The Guardian to namea few. Through his groundbreaking
comedy and activism Comrade
Fatso has reached millions acrossZimbabwe and beyond.

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So the idea behind
Magamba Network
was to use creative
forms of youth
activism to open up
democratic space. We
wanted to go to where
young people were at.

So the idea behind Magamba was to use creative
forms of youth activism to open up democratic
space. We wanted to go to where young people
were at. We started off organising hip-hop andspoken-word events that gathered hundreds ofyoung people and pushed the boundaries of free
expression, at a time where Facebook really wasn’ta thing.
We then began to embrace other forms of popular,
urban youth culture that could connect with young
people and inspire them to be part of a change intheir country. We literally made it up as we went
along. So we began to branch out into blogging,satire, festivals and innovation hubs.
We started out running Magamba part-time fromthe lounge of our Avenues flat, and grew it tobecome Zimbabwe’s leading creative and digital
media organization, which reaches millions ofyoung Zimbabweans annually.
We now run two major programmes and sevenprojects. These include an urban culture festival,a political satire TV production studio, a creative
hub, digital media projects, a nationwide sociallyconscious music competition, and a film fellowshipthat incubates a new generation of film-makers
committed to social justice.
Over the years we’ve seen how our work has
helped to expand space for free expression online,
inspire a new generation of political satirists,
support the emergence of critical new voices, anduse digital media to drive campaigns that force
progressive policy changes.

Making Parliament accessible
Our Open Parly ZW initiative is a good example
of our digital innovation work. We realised thatyoung people felt disconnected and cut off from thecorridors of power where decisions are made that
affect them. So we trained young citizen journalists
to go and tweet live from Parliament, to break down
all the bullshit into language that young people
understand.
And it’s really blown up! The platform creates
dynamic interaction between young people
and decision-makers. An MP may fall asleep inParliament – so our Open Parly handle tweets thatsuch and such an MP has fallen asleep for the
fourth time this Parliamentary session. Twitter goes
wild, with young people saying, “How dare he fall26

asleep. I voted for him!” The MP himself becomesaware of the furore, and jumps onto Twitter andtweets at Open Parly, saying, “I wasn’t sleeping. I
was just resting my eyes!” And there you have it –accountability, in just 280 characters.
Open Parly has become the go-to handle for young
people seeking independent political information. It
is a radical transparency project that has become
one of the Zimbabwean media handles with thehighest engagement rates on social media –eclipsing most legacy media companies. We cover
more parliamentary sessions than the national
broadcaster and the Parliamentary Hansard
combined. Open Parly reaches over ten million
impressions per month on Twitter. And all this withjust a few committed comrades with fast Twitter
fingers.
We have now expanded this exciting media
experiment on the continent, having launched Open
Parly in Somalia as Kalfadhi.com, and more recently
setting up Open Parly ZED in Zambia. Open Parly
ZED has already seen some great success, having
inspired the Parliament of Zambia to copy its ideas– it now livestreams Parliamentary sessions on its
newly created Facebook page.
Open Parly is also a powerful vehicle for online
campaigning, given that it has over 170 000 young
followers on Twitter. In 2017, as Zimbabwe geared
up for the elections the following year, Zimbabwe
Electoral Commission (ZEC) chairwoman Rita
Makarau made a controversial statement, thatwomen should get their husbands to sign proof-ofresidence affidavits to enable them to register tovote. Makarau also announced planned regulations
to make registration more cumbersome for young
urban voters who have no fixed address. This seemed
like blatant voter suppression of young urban votersand young women voters by the Zanu PF-controlledcommission.
So we kicked off our #DearRita campaign on
Twitter, and encouraged young people to share
their concerns about how these new proposed
regulations would affect their plans to vote. The
campaign mobilised thousands of young people
online, it became one of the most trending hashtags
in the country; and within 24 hours, ZEC wasforced to publicly distance itself from Makarau’s
statement, and assured the public that it would not
put in place such retrogressive regulations. ZEC
also re-activated its Twitter handle, to deal withthe backlash and to respond to real-time requests.

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The account remained active and engaged, giving
people improved access to voter information online,
ahead of the 2018 elections.
Meanwhile the planned voter registration
requirements were relaxed, thus enabling moreyoung men and women to register to vote. Five point
two million people registered to vote in the 2018
elections. The Zimbabwe Electoral Commission
estimated that 60% of the people who registered tovote were between the ages of 18 and 40 years old.
The 2018 elections saw historic youth turnout. Soyeah, sometimes hashtags can work.

Not the nine o’clock news
We don’t just do hard news and campaigns. We
also do political satire. It all started by fluke, really.
A good friend of mine who was working for a film
festival approached me and Outspoken in 2010, andasked us to read some comedy news at the closingnight of their festival. I guess it’s because every
time we were on stage performing, we would talkso much shit that we passed as comedians! We told
her that unfortunately, we were about to go on tourin Denmark with my band, so we couldn’t do it. She
was like, “Guys, it’s a film festival. We can send acamera crew to pre-record your news show.”
So the day of the shoot came, and 30 minutes
before the camera crew arrived I was like, “Dude,
we haven’t written anything.” We quickly wrote up
a script, titled it Zambezi News, and shot it. We
got back a month later from our tour, and weretold that it had been a hit at the film festival – wewere on to something. So we shot a pilot season ofZambezi News, which is a parody of the Zimbabwe
Broadcasting Corporation, our state TV channel thatjust issues relentless propaganda. We produced it
before social media was big in Zimbabwe, and so
we printed 10 000 DVDs that we distributed acrossthe country to over 100 towns, villages and growth
points.

in Southern Africa, and has been featured on CNN,
BBC and in The Guardian. It’s managed to inspire a
new generation of young satirists – and get us into afair bit of trouble, too.
In 2016 – as Zimbabweans’ viewing habits changed– we launched a new political satire show called The
Week, exclusively for YouTube and Facebook. It’s aweekly political round-up of the news, and reaches
an estimated 400 000 young viewers per season.
It encourages young people to get involved in civic
campaigns, and forces government ministers to
respond. We’ve found that humour is a great way to
package information for young people, so they canreflect on the news and take action.
When Covid-19 and lockdowns hit in early 2020,
we realised we would have to pivot a lot of ourMagamba programming. So we switched to fully
virtual and digital programming. We set up CovidZW.
info as Zimbabwe’s first nationwide Covid cases
tracker. We then organised a nationwide virtual
hackathon to hack together plug ins for the website.
We had 16 teams of techies participating virtuallyfrom across the country to build innovative access to
information solutions.
We also started observing how Covid funds
corruption was becoming a new battleground. So we
worked with the Follow The Money movement andthe Zimbabwe Coalition on Debt and Development
to launch FollowCovidMoney.com, to track how
African governments were spending Covid funds
and to use virtual means to push for accountability.
Magamba turns 14 years old this year. We’ve had somuch thrown at us over the years: from repression
to Covid-19, from internet shutdowns to police raids
on our offices. Bring it on! We’re ready to meetwhatever that new challenge will be – with someinnovative thinking, fast Twitter fingers, and a dashof humour.

We got overwhelmingly positive feedback; but ourfavourite piece of audience comment must havebeen the one from a viewer who wrote, “I can’t
believe this is the state of our national broadcaster. I
can’t believe ZBC has sunk to these levels!” I turned
to our Zambezi News team and said “Guys, we’ve
made it! We’ve achieved our dream! They think
we’re ZBC. We can quit now, after the first season!”Zambezi News is now five seasons in, has beenbroadcast on DStv to over two million households

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Retha, can you share withus the philosophy behindstarting Africa Check?
What was the purpose,the idea behind it?
Africa Check started in 2012, and actually has its
origins in health misinformation. Our launch was
inspired by a classic example in Nigeria in the early
2000s: a widely shared and widely believed rumourthat the polio vaccine was being used to reduce
Nigeria’s population.

THE WARAGAINSTMISINFORMATION
DEMANDS A
GROUP EFFORTAn interview with Retha Langa, Deputy Director of Africa Check.

Our founder, Peter Cunliffe-Jones, was living in
Nigeria then, as bureau chief of the AFP news
agency. Over the next few years, he followed reportsof how false claims about polio vaccines had led to asurge in the number of polio cases in Nigeria andsurrounding countries, and that is where the idea tostart Africa Check was born – to do fact-checking,and say, “Look, we need to do more when theserumours start circulating;” to actually debunk them,to proactively get accurate information out there.
Because the implications and impact of
misinformation are very real – you know, when
one says it’s a ‘life or death’ issue, it sounds likeyou might be exaggerating; but it really is that.
Recent events show how misinformation can
impact people’s behaviour. It impacts what theydo, whether they wear a mask, decide to get
vaccinated, wash their hands, and adhere to otherpreventative measures.

In the current Covid scenario,
misinformation seems to be rife; andit seems that much of it stems fromsocial media. Do you agree, and how
does Africa Check tackle the matter?
Yes, there is [a lot], but there is also a massive
increase and awareness of the dangers of
misinformation. Over the last year we haveseen an increase in interest in the work we do.
Misinformation is circulating in huge amounts, andin different ways. Social media is a key channel; but
we must not forget that there is also a huge amountcirculating in offline spaces. Many people are
dependent on radio for information – they are not on
WhatsApp, they are not on social media.

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So we are continuously looking at ways to get abetter, more in-depth understanding of what is
circulating in offline spaces. And that is wherepartnerships become key, and it’s something that
we’re going to place a lot of focus on this year.
Working with civil society organisations that havea strong presence within communities is so critical.
They are key to understanding what claims are
circulating, and what is driving them.

The problem seems to be big andimpactful. Hence a big response
is needed. How do you plan yourresponse? Where do you even begin?
Africa Check believes in a 360-degree approach.
You cannot just do one thing, and think that it’s themagic bullet that fixes the misinformation problem.
It’s too complex. It’s too big for fact-checkers tosolve by themselves, and certainly too big for Africa
Check to solve. There is no way we could factcheck every false claim out there.
So partnerships are really, really key. We workwith journalists; we work with a network of factcheckers across the continent called the Africa
Facts Network. We share knowledge, we shareskills, we collaborate on projects, we have regularonline meetings (on Slack, for example) where weshare lessons, share experiences.
During the course of 2019, the network focusedon issues such as Covid; but also, other things
that fact-checkers battle with: how do I securesustainability? How do I measure impact? All
these issues are key to running a sustainable factchecking organisation.

So, to fight misinformation, it
requires collaboration between many
stakeholders. What about the public
itself, the users of social media?
One area that we also focused on last year
was media literacy. We have always prioritised
engagement with our audience, with our
supporters. We invite them to send us claims tofact-check, for example. And it’s an important
relationship for us, because as I say, we cannot
fact-check everything. We have got to work harder
to empower people, so that – when they get that
WhatsApp, when they see something on Facebook

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Retha Langa joined Africa Checkas deputy director in August
2019. She has over a decade ofexperience across various sectors,
including media, development andentrepreneurship. Retha is driven
by a desire to do meaningful workthat matters. She started her career
as a journalist and later moved
into the non-profit space, working
in rural health. She holds a PhD
in heritage from Wits University.

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Photo: Chris Hondros/Getty Images

Rumours that the polio vaccine
was being used to reduce Nigeria's
population led to a resistanceto taking the vaccine and asubsequent increase in polio cases.
Africa Check came into being
to counter the misinformation.

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31

We have got to work
harder to empower
people, so that –when they get that
WhatsApp, when
they see somethingon Facebook – theypause; they think,they say: “Hang on aminute. Let me do a
bit of digging, let me
do a bit of research
before I just forward
this.”– they pause; they think, they say: “Hang on aminute. Let me do a bit of digging, let me do a bit ofresearch before I just forward this.”
And we know that often, people really do not havebad intentions. Of course you have disinformation;
but if I think about family members, you are sharing
something because you care, because you areworried; it is not because you have malicious
intentions, it is often driven by real concern for
those you love.
So we’ve done quite a bit of work on media literacy,
and it’s something that we will continue doing.
Last year, we launched a media literacy campaign
called #KeepTheFactsGoing. We created voicenote
episodes for WhatsApp in local languages. Those
were also broadcast on community radio stations.
In South Africa, we worked in isiZulu; In Kenya:
Swahili; Senegal: Wolof; Nigeria: Pidgin and Hausa.
We wanted to empower people to pause and think
before they share. We focused on a wide range of
topics around health and Covid, and we received
very positive feedback from our subscribers. The
fact that we produced these in different languages
was also very important, to reach a wider audience.
So for us, that kind of work is really key – towork with media, to work with civil society, tobuild partnerships and to do more to empower
people to be able to critically evaluate the flood of
information they receive on a daily basis.

It seems that in order for you to do
this important work, you cross overa bit. You’re a media organisation,
but you’re also a bit of a civil society
organisation; is that accurate? How doyou balance the issues, so that people
still trust the organisation? Howtransparent are you about what drives
your work?
What you said is very key for us – transparency;
because based on the very nature of our work, wehave got to consistently make sure that we build
trust. That is key: that people know, If I am looking
for accurate information, I can trust Africa Check.
And that’s not something we are complacent
about; it’s something we take very seriously, and it’ssomething we work at continuously. We owe it topeople to continuously take that very seriously. We
are very transparent about the kind of work we do;

32

we are transparent about who funds us, about who
we partner with, and why we do what we do.
If we get something wrong, we correct it and we aretransparent about it. We expect the same from others,
so it’s only right that we are open about it as well.

Can you speak about the value ofbeing a bit of both – journalists andcivil society activists?
It is valuable that we can bring that perspective.
We understand journalism, and the industry, andthe challenges the media sector faces. But we also
understand the incredible ability and power of civilsociety to create awareness, to drive change. In bothinstances, accurate information is the cornerstonethat everything rests on. Whatever position you
advocate for, it needs to be based on accurate
information.
We are trying to create awareness of the importanceof accurate information; but it’s equally important for
us to better understand different communities. And
that is where civil society can really bring a lot to thetable, in terms of understanding why certain pieces of
misinformation spread so easily, and what drives that,versus others that might not really get traction. So
for us it is not just about we are creating awarenessabout the importance of accurate information; thereis immense value in terms of the knowledge and theinsight that civil society can bring, to help us work
together to better tackle misinformation.

Would you argue that more media
and civil society organisations
should work in this way – to partnertransparently in order to be more
effective?
Yes, we’ve got to be quite innovative. The kindof pressure that the media is under was justaccelerated by the Covid pandemic, and calls for
new approaches. We are doing a project in Nigeria
especially focused on health misinformation, where
we are bringing together journalists and a lot ofdifferent important role players in health – fromthe Bureau of Statistics, to doctors, to the Nigeria
Centre for Disease Control, to researchers. We
started a WhatsApp group where people can flag
misinformation, and then we can all work together to
respond to it.

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And we’ve had a lot of success with that – thesejournalists now have direct lines to experts. They
don’t have to wait for a press release; you canquickly flag misinformation, you can respond to
it much quicker. For example, we had a scenario
around rumours about yellow fever in 2019, and it
could quickly be flagged; the Centre for Disease
Control was made aware of the misinformation andcould respond quickly, and we could get accurate
information out there.
The pandemic has shown the need for these kinds ofcollaborative approaches, where you work together
to solve the problem of misinformation.

So in sub-Saharan Africa, how hard
is it to access good information – forinstance, from governments, bodies,
entities – to be able to fact-check
whatever information is out there?
It’s not easy work. In the beginning, ourquestions to spokespeople and others often wentunanswered. But as we became more active, built
more partnerships, more awareness of our work,
it became easier. You need to build a credible
track record, and create awareness of your work.
You have to work to get buy-in. It doesn’t happen
overnight. You’ve got to do the work to build therelationships for people to realise that you are anorganisation that is built on trust, that you are nonpartisan, that you do not have a particular agenda
in terms of the work you do.

In terms of you working with civilsociety: within sub-Saharan Africa,
do you find that it’s easier in somecountries, as opposed to others,
to build those coalitions with civilsociety?
We have always been quite clear that it’s not a ‘onesize fits all’ approach; we work in four countries(South Africa, Kenya, Senegal and Nigeria), andthere are nuances to each country. For us, what isvery important is that we have local teams in eachcountry; so we’re not trying to build a partnershipfrom South Africa in Nigeria. Our Nigeria teamunderstands the context, and understands how
we have to go about things to be impactful in our
approach.

What is your reading of the lie of theland in terms of the media and theiraccuracy? We know the media in
Africa faces very severe issues.
There are many complexities. Social media demands
instant publishing. The processes to secure accurate
information are disrupted. Resources are shrinking,and the media industry is struggling with financial
sustainability. We need creative solutions, andpartnerships between media houses and civilsociety organisations, to ensure accuracy. How can
we collaborate to get this right?
In South Africa, we see that a lot of content ismoving behind paywalls. If I’m someone who
cannot afford that, where do I go to find accurate
information? And that can contribute to creatinga vacuum that then allows for misinformation
to spread, because I start becoming reliant on
Facebook or fake websites to find news. I cannot
access anything else. So I really do believe injournalism for the public good, and its central rolein creating strong democracies. You’ve got to cometogether and find solutions to that. It’s critical that
we say – as the Daily Maverick news service does –“We don’t need to be first; we need to be right.”

Are you looking at training forjournalists and civil society
organisations that can strengthen
their ability to be accurate? Training
on how to access the right people,
fact-checking, how to handle
controversial issues?
Yes, we do – and it’s very important. We offer a
range of fact-checking trainings for journalists andcivil society. It’s important to know where to get
accurate data, what are the steps and fact-checking
processes you can take to be sure you are accurate,
etc. The more skilled one is, the more one breaks
away from sensationalist headlines and stories
to more accurate, informative information. It also
helps because with Covid, everyone is affected;
one cannot stand isolated from it. Training can help
navigate the space and the fear and uncertainty for
individuals who are now working in very difficult
circumstances.

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FRIENDS &PARTNERS

Memory Bandera from DefendDefenders reflects on theimportance of the Human Rights Commissions Network (HRCnet)
partnerships and its achievements.

On the occasion ofits 15th anniversary,
DefendDefenders reflected
on its achievements. These
cover virtually all areas ofhuman rights work. While
our mandate focuses on the
promotion and protectionof human rights defenders
in East Africa and the Hornof Africa, our programmes
and projects cover capacitybuilding, protection andsecurity management,
digital safety, advocacy andresearch.

However, DefendDefenders would not be what it
is today without networks. Bringing human rights
defenders and organisations together, pooling
resources, exchanging information, and sharing
good practices are central to our activities. We
would be much less effective without these. In
fact, we would be unable to do a lot of the work
we do.

DefendDefenders’ networks
In Africa, DefendDefenders hosts andcoordinates the Pan-African Human Rights
Defenders Network (AfricanDefenders), whichitself is made up of five sub-regional networks– one for each sub-region of the continent.
AfricanDefenders is responsible for initiatives
that make a difference for African human rights
defenders, including the ‘Ubuntu Hub Cities’
relocation initiative.
DefendDefenders is also part of HRCnet.
Established in 2006, HRCnet brings together
17 NGOs that engage with the United Nations
Human Rights Council. Collectively, we push theCouncil to do more and to do better. We push theCouncil to strengthen its impact on the ground– that is, to strengthen respect for human rights
and advance the protection of human rights
defenders everywhere. HRCnet members workin a coordinated manner and in solidarity; and as
a network, we have contributed to some of themost important initiatives of the Human Rights
Council, for instance investigative mechanisms
such as commissions of inquiry.

Friends more than partners
Fellow HRCnet members include other regionalNGOs from the Global South. Over the years,
they have become more than partners; they
have become friends. They work in Africa, Asia,
Latin America, and globally. We face similar
challenges. We engage in shared struggles,
at the Human Rights Council and beyond. We
share a sense of belonging. Thanks to HRCnet,
we are part of a global community of humanrights lovers – people who want to see humanrights upheld, and every human being respected
and their rights and dignity upheld. HRCnet isa unique network. It is focused on making the
Human Rights Council more effective, but it ismuch more than that.

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Memory Bandera is the director ofprogrammes and administration at
DefendDefenders. She is in charge ofprogrammes, and deals extensively
with organisational development
and human resources management.
Memory is also a founding memberof the Girl Child Network Zimbabwe,
co-founder of Tariro: Hope and
Health for Zimbabwe’s Orphans, and
the Girl Child Network Uganda.

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Photo: YASUYOSHI CHIBA/AFP via Getty Images

A 10 year old boy helps his blind father as they wait ina line to vote at a polling station in Kampala, Uganda,
on January 14, 2021. Ugandans began voting in a tenseelection on January 14 2021 under heavy security andan internet blackout. Veteran leader Yoweri Museveni
won a sixth elected term against a former pop starhalf his age. The internet went down on the eve of
the vote, with some parts of the country reporting
complete disruptions or significant slowdowns, after
one of the most violent election campaigns in years.

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We realise thatissues facing humanrights defenders
in East Africa aresimilar to issues
facing defenders
in Brazil, Indonesia
and Zimbabwe.
Individual cases
are different, but
the issues are thesame. We all fightagainst power
abuse, injustice andimpunity.

Shared struggles
When we meet with fellow HRCnet members,
we learn about their struggles, the human rights
violations they fight, and the people they workwith. We realise that the issues facing human rights
defenders in East Africa are similar to the issues
facing defenders in Brazil, Indonesia and Zimbabwe.
Individual cases are different, but the issues are thesame. We all fight against power abuse, injusticeand impunity.
These days, because of the Covid-19 pandemic,
meetings tend to take place online. But in 2018,
the HRCnet annual meeting took place in Buenos
Aires, Argentina. We went there knowing little about
the country. Thanks to CELS (a fellow HRCnet
member), an amazing human rights organisation, we
learned about Argentinian history, the Argentinian
people’s struggle against dictatorship, and thevictims’ and survivors’ quest for justice. We were
lucky to meet with the Abuelas de Plaza de Mayo
(Grandmothers of the Plaza de Mayo), who havebeen trying to locate the children of their children,
who the dictatorship (1976-1983) abducted and who
disappeared without trace. The Abuelas contributed
to taking down the dictatorship.
Everything we learned about the Argentinian
people’s fight for accountability and justice inthat week resonated with our work on the African
continent. We were able to learn this because of
HRCnet. On a daily basis, HRCnet is a platform forexchanging information. We receive information
on human rights issues in Egypt, the Philippines,
the US, Russia and China. We share information on
developments in Ethiopia, Burundi and Tanzania.
We get to know what our colleagues and friends do,and they get to know what we do. Because HRCnetexists, people in Thailand, Norway and Brazil know
how Sudanese human rights defenders organise.
Because HRCnet exists, people in Uganda knowwhat issues Belarusian defenders face, how the
Chinese state cracks down on lawyers, and how ajudicial decision in a Latin American country led tobetter protections for local indigenous people.

A sense of solidarity
In terms of Geneva and the Human Rights Council,
HRCnet’s value is clear. HRCnet members constantly
share information and analyses on developments
at the Council. They also join forces and act insolidarity, and by example. Ahead of Council

38

sessions, NGOs routinely prepare calls and letters –documents that outline what we want the Council to
do with regard to a specific country.
HRCnet brings a sense of solidarity to everything
its members do. Because HRCnet members havebuilt solidarity over the years, calls and letters are
truly global. Organisations that are not African
sign on to letters on human rights in South Sudan.
Organisations that are not Asian sign on to letters on
human rights in the Philippines. Organisations thatare not from the Middle East sign on to letters on
human rights in Saudi Arabia.
And state representatives now routinely see lettersthat many organisations support, and not justorganisations from the country concerned. And
it matters. It shows states that people all over theworld care about South Sudan, the Philippines
and Saudi Arabia, and want to see human rights
improvements in these countries. When an
Argentinian organisation such as CELS endorses
a call for the release of unjustly detained humanrights defenders in Egypt, it outlines an expectationthat the Argentinian government will act to try andsecure the release of these defenders.

Partnerships
As all regions of the world have experienced ahuman rights backlash since the rise of authoritarian
populists in the 2010s, human rights actors haveexperienced a similar set of challenges. At thisturning point for human rights and the rule of law
worldwide, no human rights organisation can work
alone. We need to join forces, and share information,
strategies and resources. Beyond formal andinformal networks, we need to build partnerships
with like-minded actors in the human rights field
and beyond.
We need journalists to debunk disinformationand misinformation. We need organisers to help
communities affected by human rights violations toclaim their rights. We need human rights defenders
from all continents to realise that they are in
the same boat – and that they have friends andsupporters everywhere.
In 2021, as the world struggles to leave the Covid-19
crisis behind and as we advocate for human dignity(universal access to vaccines should be a key policy
priority), we will need more partnerships, more
networks, and an ever-more-interconnected civilsociety.

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39

TRANSFORMINGTRADITIONALJOURNALISMINTOSUSTAINABLE
JOURNALISM
Lars Tallert explores the concept of ‘sustainable journalism’. He argues that asustainable society requires a journalism that addresses the sustainability challenges.
Furthermore, he argues that a sustainable future for journalism, as a practiceand business, depends on its capability to do precisely that.

40

PEOPLE, POWER, TRUTH – HUMAN RIGHTS, CIVIL SOCIETY & THE MEDIA IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Whenever you engage injournalistic activity, ask
yourself: ”How does thisaffect sustainability?” If you
do so, you are already on
the threshold of practisingsustainable journalism.

The concept is obviously about journalism in relation
to sustainable development, and departs from twocontemporary sustainability crises:• The sustainability crisis of society related toclimate change, democracy, poverty, inequality,
armed conflicts.
• The sustainability crisis of journalism related
to decrease in revenues, capture of the media,
disinformation, clickbait journalism, deteriorating
trust in the media.
Sustainable journalism suggests that these crises
are intrinsically intertwined. A sustainable society– economically, ecologically, and socially – requires
a journalism that addresses the sustainability
challenges facing society; and a sustainable future forjournalism as a practice and business depends on its
capability to do precisely that.
Sustainable journalism is concerned with how
decisions, processes and activities will affect thepossibilities for future generations – our children
and grandchildren – allowing them to have the same
possibilities as our generation.
In relation to sustainability, the mission for theindividual journalist may seem simple: the public
needs to know how their behaviour and decisions
affect sustainability. The individual journalist is also
expected to hold power to account, ensuring that thepeople in power stick to their commitments and makewise decisions related to sustainability.
But if we look at the bigger picture, transforming
traditional journalism into sustainable journalism ischallenging.
It demands that we redefine the traditional logicof news reporting as a way to describe the statusquo – typically focusing on the immediate andgeographically close, and preoccupied with reportingon sudden, negative and sensational events.
The concept also expands the traditional role ofjournalism in society. Journalism has long been seen
as a lever for democracy. Sustainable journalism
also regards journalism as a lever for sustainability,
thereby expanding its potential function andimportance in society.
The concept of sustainable journalism was firstcoined by Ulrika Olausson, Peter Berglez andMart Ots, professors at Jönköping University in
Sweden. Thereafter it was explored by around 25
other international academic media researchers
in the anthology What is Sustainable Journalism?
Presently, a number of researchers and practitioners

PEOPLE, POWER, TRUTH – HUMAN RIGHTS, CIVIL SOCIETY & THE MEDIA IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Lars Tallert is Head of Policy andInternational Development, Fojo
Media Institute at Linnaeus University.
He is also Sweden’s representative to
the UNESCO IPDC Intergovernmental
Council. During more than thirty
years he has been an advisor togovernments, media companies,
the UN, OECD/DAC and NGOs
on issues related to development,
communication and journalism.
He is presently establishing the
Sustainable Journalism Partnershipto explore how journalism andsustainability can be interlinked.

41

Photo: Waldo Swiegers/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

Photo: Frank Rockstroh/Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images.

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Photo: Linnaeus University

Photo: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images

42

Increasing drought and pollution and how it
impacts on the world is a global environmental
crisis. The concept of sustainable journalism
challenges the media to explore how and what
they report on and how it will affect future
generations. Even more so when it comes to theclimate crisis. Martin Luther King had a dream.
Sustainable journalism is an effort to shape the
dream for future generation. Not just to critique.

43But do I want to bepart of a movementthat is only against?
Martin Luther Kingdidn’t say, “I have anightmare.” He said,“I have a dream.”
Perhaps it is time
for the development
community, civilsociety activists andjournalists to also
better define what it is
we are for?

are exploring how sustainable journalism could beapplied in practice, with a particular focus on subSaharan Africa.
So; is sustainable journalism something unheard of,something never experienced? Not at all. We see
brilliant examples of sustainable journalism every day.
But there is no explicit theory or method to actually
identify what it is, what the demands are, and how we
can foster more journalism to become sustainable.
This is why we need to define and introduce theconcept of sustainable journalism. By doing so, wewill be able to categorise and label it – and from there,
incorporate the concept in journalism education,
training and content production.
When turning sustainable journalism into practice,
we are inspired by several journalistic concepts:
solutions-oriented, constructive, gender- and conflictsensitive, global-local, entrepreneurial and ethical;
as well as ‘unbreaking news’, developed by Rob
Weinberg and his colleagues at De Correspondent,
and the concept of ‘factfulness’, invented by the
Swedish statistician Hans Rosling.
Sustainable journalism is obviously related to financial
sustainability, but in this context it does not simply
mean that media organisations should be able to
make profit, regardless of what content they produce.
What is needed is a broader view of media viability,
one that looks beyond the money and focuses on
quality journalism in combination with profitability.
DWA has developed a model based on media viability
that encapsulates exactly this approach, incorporating
five dimensions related to financial sustainability —economics, politics, content, technology, and thecommunity.
Someone may object: when there are so manydifferent attempts to define new kinds of journalism,
do we really need to introduce yet another one?
The answer is yes. Because sustainable journalism
is not an ad hoc concept. It relates to the two mostimportant international treaties of our time, both
relating to sustainability: Agenda 2030 and the Paris
Agreement. The treaties include both global andnational commitments, and they are realised throughnational initiatives as well at municipalities, privatecompanies, civil society organisations and others,
making them an ideal arena for journalistic watchdog
coverage.
While most media development organisations havefocused on how journalism could be seen as partof Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development
Goals (SDGs) – and the answer is always SDG target

44

16.10 – sustainable journalism turns the tables, andasks: how can journalism make sure that our leaders
keep their promises and deliver their undertakings,
not only in relation to the SDGs and the Paris
Agreement, but on anything related to sustainability?
How can journalism inform the public and hold power
to account when it comes to the most important
challenges and the biggest story of our time – thewell-being (and ultimately, the survival) of us ashuman beings?
We know that human impact on climate change is nota matter of opinion; it is a fact. We know that time islimited; we need to fundamentally transform society,starting immediately. In 10 years, it will already be toolate. We also know that practically all world leaders
have made strong commitments to sustainability. And
we know that a sustainable society – ecologically,socially and economically – requires a journalism that
addresses precisely this.
It shouldn’t be too difficult to make really goodjournalism based on this knowledge. Yet, while civilsociety organisations often do a good job holding
power to account in relation to the SDGs, we rarely
see journalism doing so – even if, as always, there arebrilliant exceptions. Perhaps the logic of ‘breakingnews reporting’ is too occupied with sudden,
sensational and negative events to be able to spot
and report on the slow, long-term changes?
Furthermore, the concept of sustainable journalism
is based on one of the most important UN reports
ever published: Our Common Future, also known as
the Brundtland report, inspired by the Stockholm
Conference in 1972 that introduced environment
concerns to the formal political development sphere.
The report states that sustainable development
is “development that meets the needs of thepresent without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs”. It alsoestablishes the three dimensions of sustainability:
environmental, economic and social. It further claims
that the many crises facing the planet are interlocking
crises, meaning that they are elements of one
single global crisis. Hence, there is a need for active
participation and cooperation from all sectors ofsociety, in all countries, to ensure a sustainable
development.
The importance of the Brundtland report can hardly
be overemphasised. More than 30 years after it was
written, it constituted the basis for Agenda 2030 and
the SDGs. And likewise, it was an invaluable source ofinspiration when the Paris Agreement was prepared.

PEOPLE, POWER, TRUTH – HUMAN RIGHTS, CIVIL SOCIETY & THE MEDIA IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Having a dream
We live in a time of unprecedented challenges; butalso, unprecedented possibilities. Perhaps theinternet and social media demonstrate this better
than anything else? We have all the knowledge inthe world just one fingertip-click away. But this isalso true for the endless flood of disinformation, hatespeech, harassment and threats that sometimes
threatens to drown us.
Still, somehow the development agenda seems to
be mostly concerned with analysing the problems.
And the majority of civil society activists seem tobe preoccupied with defining all the things they areagainst. There is a lot of talk about shrinking spacefor civil society and freedom of expression, about
the crises for journalism, about polarisation, racism,
ethnic divides, gender inequality, disinformation,
democracy in decline, repression and harassment.
I agree with all of this. But do I want to be part of amovement that is only against? Martin Luther Kingdidn’t say, “I have a nightmare.” He said, “I havea dream.” Perhaps it is time for the development
community, civil society activists and journalists
to also better define what it is we are for? Asjournalists, would it be possible to envisage apossible sustainable transformation of society,without deserting our obligation to the truth andour loyalty to the public? I think it is possible; andI believe there are many exciting ideas in the newgeneration that we need to explore!
Lastly, good journalism is by no means produced
only by what is traditionally defined as the media
industry. We see lots of content that meets thecriteria for sustainable journalism in unexpected
places: in academic institutions, in civil society
organisations, within government watchdog
institutions, on private companies’ websites, on
professional influencers’ YouTube channels and on
citizen journalists’ digital platforms.
The concept of sustainable journalism has thepotential to serve both as a point of departureand as a platform for exploring new possibilities,
if we can establish a space – and not a shrinking
space, but an expanding one – for collaboration,
partnerships and coalitions to contribute to the
public discourse in finding solutions to the greatchallenges of our time; that can hold power toaccount, and provide the public with the information
they need to make informed, sustainable decisions.
The pioneers of sustainable journalism are presently
discussing how to establish such a space. We callit the Sustainable Journalism Partnership. We hope
you will join us!

Public interest
journalismrGende e
iv
it
s
sen
lism
journass
ctfulne

Fa

g
eakin
'Unbr ws'
neMedia viability
Climate &environment
journalism
Solutionoriented/
constructive
journalism

Conflic
sensitivtjourna e
lism
Engag
journa ed
lism
Stake
holde
rdriv
journaen
lism

SOURCES OF
INSPIRATION FORSUSTAINABLE JOURNALISMSUSTAINABLE JOURNALISM
IN PRACTICE
This is an attempt to define an ideal practiceof sustainable journalism. It is a work inprogress; additional remarks are welcome.
Hopefully, these bullet points will serve as
inspiration if you wish to participate in thedevelopment of the concept.
The foundation is built on establishedideals, where journalism:• as its first obligation, demonstrates thepresentation of the truth;• as its first principle, remains loyal to theidea of public interest;• is based on fact checking and source
verification and a scientific approach,and stands in contrast to disinformation;• functions as an independent monitor of
power, maintaining an independence
from those reported on;• becomes a forum for public criticism
and debate;• communicates what is significant tocitizens in an interesting, relevant andengaging way;
• holds those in power to account.

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45

The sustainability
challenges of our timerequire practitionersof sustainable
journalism to avoid
pretending that theycan ‘stand outside
reality and objectively
describe it’, as if they
were free of bias andliberated from theirpersonal experiences
and culture.

THE CHALLENGES OF OUR TIME ARE TO BE THE CENTRAL FOCUS
Besides these more traditional ideals, the sustainability challenges of our time put
even higher demands on journalism; namely that it:• is able to meet the needs of the present
without compromising the ability of future
generations to meet their own needs,
addressing the overarching challenges of ourtime – environmental, economic and social
sustainability;• is gender-sensitive, inclusive and conflictsensitive. Publishing should be the result of aconscious decision related to consequences.
However, publishing may well be defendable
even if the consequences are undesirable, if
the story contains information that the public
needs to know to be able to make informed
decisions.
• avoids harmful simplifications and steers clearof news that is meant to shock rather thaninform;• is solution-oriented, not only describing
problems but also posing questions that point
to possible solutions for a future sustainable
world;• is entrepreneurial, searching for innovative
ways to ensure financial independence;• openly takes on the driving of positive change
by reporting about how climate change
already impacts people around the world,
including natural disasters and extreme
weather;• gives space to voices about climate crises,from acknowledged experts and from thoseaffected;• reports on innovative initiatives forenvironmental, social and economic
sustainability;• helps users to live sustainably when reportingon issues such as food, travel and lifestyle;• undertakes investigations into the economic
and political structures that underpin the
carbon economy, and examines the role theclimate crisis plays in many other criticalissues – including inequality, migration andthe battle for scarce resources;• uses a language that recognises the severityof the climate crisis; a language that
accurately describes the environmental crises

46

facing the world and that is scientifically
precise, while also communicating clearlywith readers on the urgency of this issue;• preferably, is developed through engagement
and connection with surrounding society.
Participation, interactivity and engagement
are key concepts in this context;• strives to find new ways of telling stories andto explain the world, not least for the younger
generation. Visionary storytelling is therefore
at the heart of sustainable journalism;• strives to connect the local with the global.
Change may happen locally, but most changes
are closely connected to global events andnetworks – and vice versa;• may be driven by interest organisations; but if
this is the case, the obligation to tell the truth
and loyalty to citizens must come as a firstpriority. Distorted or incomplete information
can never be considered sustainable
journalism, even if it would serve a higher
purpose or agenda.
• requires that practitioners of sustainable
journalism not only master professional
journalistic skills, but also have thoroughthematic knowledge of the overarching
challenges of our time, such as as climatechange, democracy, equality, gender equity
and inclusion.
• requires practitioners of sustainable
journalism to avoid pretending that theycan ‘stand outside reality and objectively
describe it’, as if they were free of bias andliberated from their personal experiences andculture. This was not what pioneers of modern
journalism meant when they invented theconcept of ‘objective journalism’. It was out ofa growing recognition that journalists were
full of bias, often unconsciously. Objectivity
called for journalists to develop a consistentmethod of testing information – a transparent
approach to evidence – so that personal andcultural biases would not undermine theaccuracy of their work. This approach is also
valid for sustainable journalism.

PEOPLE, POWER, TRUTH – HUMAN RIGHTS, CIVIL SOCIETY & THE MEDIA IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

TRANSPARENCY IS A
PRECONDITION FORSUSTAINABLE JOURNALISM
It is not just the content that
determines whether journalism
is sustainable or not; it is also thetransparency of the company ororganisation behind the publication.
Publishers should:• strive to never publish false content. If
false content is published by mistake, it
must be rapidly corrected;• refer to fact-checked sources, preferably
first-hand information or trustworthy,
credible second-hand news sources;

PRODUCTION OF NEWSMUST BE SUSTAINABLE
The production process must comply
with the demands of social, economicand environmental sustainability.
This could be a very long list; but asconditions vary depending on thesize and nature of the publishing unit,
here are just some examples:• set targets (including reducing carbon
emissions) in line with science-based
methodology;• cut the use of single-use plastic;• develop a detailed long-term plan on how
to achieve net zero emissions;• transparently account for the sources andworking methods that have been used
when publishing a story;• buy renewable electricity;• avoid deceptive headlines that containfalse information, or otherwise do notreflect what is actually in the story;• strive to follow the guidelines of the
UN Global Compact and Certified B
Corporations.

• offer training and awareness capacitybuilding for staff on sustainability;• not distort or misrepresent information to
make an argument;• distinguish opinion from news reportingin a responsible manner. If the reporting
expresses a particular point of view,
this should be clearly stated – including
who expresses the view, and from whatperspective it is conveyed;• clearly display which content is paid for
and which is not;• clearly and accessibly provide the namesof content creators, along with either
contact or brief biographical information;• make clear how an error or complaint
by a reader/viewer/listener should bereported;• establish effective practices for publishingclarifications and corrections, and notecorrections in a transparent way;
• clearly disclose ownership and/or financing, as well as any notableideological or political positions held bythose with a significant financial interestin the site, in a user-friendly manner.

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COLLABORATION,DISRUPTION &INNOVATION
Jamlab has worked to connect like-minded media innovators,
journalists and social entrepreneurs in order to give them the opportunity toengage with one another on subjects that typically do not get
the exposure they deserve.

The saying ‘Amid every crisis
lies opportunity’ couldn’t
have rung more true for many
innovators across the African
continent when the Covid-19
pandemic hit and left many
scrapping for a living. One
such innovator was Nash
TV’s programmes manager,
DJ Butterphly Phunk.

Often when journalism is a topic of discussion, it
seems current affairs, general news, politics andsports are the beats that have become known tomany audiences. Niche beats such as entertainment
rarely come to the fore, or receive similar attention.
A total ban on larger gatherings in Zimbabwe leftmany musicians destitute and without the means
to take care of their families. It was at this juncturethat Nash TV, a solely visual entertainment media
organisation, was born.
According to Phunk, the main purpose for thisplatform was to entertain audiences. Although theiridea was not the first of its kind, in Zimbabwe it’s the
only one still standing, and one that goes the extra
mile in not only entertaining audiences, but alsoestablishing relationships with the musicians who
appear on the show.
Nash TV’s unique selling proposition is that it treatsthese artists like a project of their own, nurturing
them and aggressively marketing their work. In a
short space of time, Nash TV has garnered a large
following, and even funding that will aid the growthof their work.
My colleagues and I at Jamlab (short for the
Journalism and Media Lab) know that there aremany other stories like Nash TV across the African
continent. At Jamlab we believe in the ‘classical’approach to innovation, which often takes the formof ‘disruptive innovation’.
Some of the most important innovation work thatneeds to be done relates rather to repair – to trying
to fix parts of the media system that just aren’t
working for people. And we believe that by raisingawareness of this type of work, others throughout
the continent could be equally inspired.
Since 2017, Jamlab has worked to connect likeminded media innovators, journalists and social
entrepreneurs in order to give them the opportunity
to engage with one another on subjects thattypically do not get the exposure they deserve.
We have done this through three programmes,
which were designed to be mutually reinforcing.
These are the knowledge programme (online
magazine, newsletter and other digital platforms),
where we’ve provided reviews of new research andreporting technologies, and many other resources
for working African journalists; a six-monthaccelerator programme; and the Community ofPractice (an event series). We used the magazine
to report and publicise the other programmes, and48

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Tshepo Tshabalala is the Directorof the Journalism and MediaLab (Jamlab) in Department of
Journalism and Media Studies at the
University of the Witwatersrand.

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Some of the mostimportant innovation
work that needs to bedone relates rather torepair – to trying tofix parts of the media
system that just aren’t
working for people.
And we believe thatby raising awarenessof this type of work,
others throughout thecontinent could beequally inspired.

as an important source of content on innovation
practices and ideas.
In the same year we hosted our first journalism
and media accelerator programme, which sets out
to bring new media services to South Africa withthe aim of addressing some of the broken parts ofthe media ecosystem. Kathy Magrobi, for example,
joined the second iteration of the programme withjust a concept, an idea on paper. By the end of her
six-month journey on the Jamlab Accelerator, she
had developed Quote This Woman+, a new platformlisting credible experts on issues relating to womenand under-represented voices that newsrooms caneasily access and rely on.
During her initial research, which guided theevolution of her platform, she found that the
representation of women and other marginalised
voices was far more absent than present inSouth Africa’s popular media. Magrobi is one ofsix entrepreneurs in the programme who havesucceeded in garnering investment in order tocontinue to develop her venture.

After not even four years since its inception, Jamlab’s
story is just taking off. Building a knowledge hub
for innovations such as DJ Butterphly Phunk’s Nash
TV and Magrobi’s Quote This Woman+, sharing
newsroom tools and skills, and collaborating withmedia start-ups is not easy – but it is needed.
African journalists and media houses face manyof the same problems so familiar to the rest of
the world: shrinking newsrooms, failing businessmodels, threats from governments and wide internet
shutdowns.
Following a tumultuous year marred by a global
pandemic that decimated human life and manyindustries, including journalism and media, thenext few months and years are likely to be justas turbulent. At Jamlab, we will continue to think
about and work on how to build resilience, throughbuilding networks across borders that can provide
better support and solidarity for independent
media.

For the fourth iteration of the accelerator
programme we scaled the project into the restof the continent. We found eight start-ups, from
Madagascar, Zambia, Botswana, Zimbabwe, Malawi,
eSwatini and Angola, who will potentially transform
information, conversations and the public sphere in
their respective countries.
We look forward to incoming cohorts with greatideas who are ready to repair and disrupt the media
ecosystem across the African continent. To datewe’ve accelerated 24 teams, of which 13 are womenled start-ups; and six of these received externalfunding during or after the accelerator.
Over the past three and a half years we’ve convened
gatherings of journalists and media makers fromaround the continent to share knowledge and build
a community of practice. We’ve learnt that there
are many opportunities to innovate, to deliver new
services, to reach new audiences, and for media toplay more roles in building informed societies.
Since 2017 we’ve been collaborating with the
Civic Tech Innovation Network, where more often
than not our work has many overlaps, linking civilsociety with journalists in order to share impactfulcommunication methods. This partnership has
allowed both organisations to tap into and reachaudiences from each other’s worlds.

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STANDINGWITNESSTO HUMANRIGHTSDEFENDERSDavid Kode argues that in the future, it will be imperative to strengthen
coalitions of civil society groups, the media and human rights defenders to act insolidarity. These coalitions will bring together groups working on environmental, land
and indigenous rights, the rights of women, media rights, and the rights of LGBTI
communities. As these coalitions ‘stand as their witness’, they will amplify thevoices of those targeted by the state. It is a critical need, as the world – andAfrica – strive for more ‘open’ societies.

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In what has now become afamiliar pattern, Zimbabwean
journalist Hopewell Chin’ono
has been arrested – again, forthe third term in a period of
six months.

This time the Zimbabwean authorities have accused
him of peddling falsehoods. He was arrested
previously in November 2020 on charges of‘obstruction of justice’ and ‘demeaning Zimbabwe’s
National Prosecuting Authority’, barely two months
after he was released on bail following a previousarrest in July 2020.
At the centre of the arrests and judicial persecutionof Hopewell Chin’ono is his courageous investigative
journalism; this new wave of persecution began after
he reported on alleged corruption by Zimbabwe’s
Health Ministry in the procurement of Covid-19
supplies.
The arrest and judicial persecution of Hopewell
Chin’ono is symptomatic of the challenges faced byjournalists and human rights defenders across theworld. Seen in the context of civic space – defined
as a set of universally accepted rules which allow
people to organise, participate and communicate
with each other freely and without hindrance – arecent report by the CIVICUS Monitor reveals that
only 3.4% of the world’s population live in countries
rated ‘open’. An ‘open’ rating for civil society means
citizens, journalists, human rights defenders and civilsociety groups are able to express their views on
issues affecting the state without any form of reprisal
from the authorities.
In Africa specifically, the findings of the reporthighlight the fact that the detention of journalists
is number one on the list of the top five humanrights violations on the continent. From Burundi
to Zimbabawe, Cameroon, Guinea and Uganda,
authorities target human rights defenders andjournalists for simply reporting on the excessesof the state, for highlighting corrupt practices andhuman rights violations. Once arrested, they areaccused of the most serious charges available,
including attempting to destabilise the state,colluding with foreign powers, terrorism, andattempting to foment an insurrection. Such charges
often also carry the most serious penalties.

What is the ‘Standasmywitness’
campaign?
Often characterised by states as ‘criminals’, humanrights defenders and journalists facing persecution
are subjected to unfair judicial processes; and in
the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, they are
exposed to adverse health conditions in prisons anddetention centres. In many instances, subjecting

PEOPLE, POWER, TRUTH – HUMAN RIGHTS, CIVIL SOCIETY & THE MEDIA IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICADavid Kode is head of Advocacy
and Campaigns at CIVICUS, a
global alliance of civil society
organisations and activists dedicatedto strengthening citizen action
and civil society throughout theworld. It was established in 1993,
and since 2002 has been proudly
headquartered in Johannesburg,
South Africa, with additional hubs
across the globe. It is a membershipalliance with more than 10 000
members in more than 175 countries.
The CIVICUS definition of civil society
is broad, covering non-governmentalorganisations, activists, civil society
coalitions and networks, protest
and social movements, voluntary
bodies, campaigning organisations,charities, faith-based groups,
trade unions and philanthropic
foundations. Its membership isdiverse, spanning a wide range ofissues, sizes and organisation types.

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Photo: Frank Chikowore

FAR LEFT: A Zimbabwean national, Hlevani
Matikiti protests at the entrance to the University
of Johannesburg during the funeral of the lateAndrew Mlangeni and against the arrest of
Zimbabwean journalists on July 29, 2020.
ABOVE: At the time Zimbabwean journalist
Hopewell Chin'ono and opposition politician
Jacob Ngarivhume were arrested on charges
of inciting public violence. They weredenied bail and remanded in custody.

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Source: monitor.civicus.org

Photo: Fani Mahuntsi/Gallo Images via Getty Images

LEFT: The map on the left depicts"openness" of African countries.

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The appellation ‘Standasmywitness’ isborrowed from the words of Said Zahari, aformer editor-in-chief of Malay-language
newspaper Utusan Melayu, himself a prisonerof conscience who was detained for 17 years
without trial in Singapore; he called on those
who had a voice to speak out, to ‘stand as his
witness’.

them to these conditions, and to the might of themilitary and the state, means these brave humanrights defenders are unable to speak for themselves
while in detention. Some are denied contact
with family and/or legal representation; while on
occasion, some are denied access to medical
assistance. Others are subjected to unfair legal
processes, and even in detention, their rights aretaken away from them.
It was as a result of this that global civil society
alliance CIVICUS, together with more than
190 civil society organisations, launched the‘Standasmywitness’ campaign in July 2020, to raiseawareness regarding the state of human rights
defenders who are subjected to judicial persecution
and detention, and to advocate for their release.
The appellation ‘Standasmywitness’ is borrowed
from the words of Said Zahari, a former editor-inchief of Malay-language newspaper Utusan Melayu,
himself a prisoner of conscience who was detainedfor 17 years without trial in Singapore; he called on
those who had a voice to speak out, to ‘stand as his
witness’.
The campaign was launched following
consultations with representatives of civil society
across the world, and was first publicised on 18
July, Nelson Mandela Day; because like the former
South African President, who spent 27 years in jail,many human rights defenders are persecuted andjailed for standing for freedom, human rights anddemocratic values.
The campaign presents an opportunity to forge
coalitions, and highlights the significance ofsolidarity between groups working on civil society
issues, human rights defenders, and the media.
It sheds light on the detention of human rights
defenders such as Germain Rukuki, who wassentenced to 32 years in prison by the Burundianauthorities – following a deeply flawed judicial
process – on trumped-up charges of rebellion
and threatening state security. It advocates forthe release of Cameroonian journalist Mancho
Bibixy, who was arrested in January 2018 andlater sentenced to 15 years in prison on chargesof terrorism, secession and inciting civil war, forspeaking out against the human rights violations in
Cameroon’s Anglophone communities.
The campaign continues to advocate for an end to
the persecution and detention of woman humanrights defenders, activists working on environmental,
land and indigenous rights, and journalists raising

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concerns about governance issues across thecontinent. Since it was launched in July 2020, thecampaign has worked with civil society partners atnational and regional level to successfully advocate
for the release of human rights defenders andjournalists in Niger and Burundi.
The different ratings on the state of civic space indifferent countries in Africa are indicative of thehuman rights condition and the treatment of humanrights defenders and journalists on the continent.
According to the CIVICUS Monitor, of the 49
countries rated, six are rated as ‘closed’ – meaning
any overt advocacy at national level by civil society
or critical reporting by journalists is likely to lead tothe arrest and detention of representatives of civilsociety, or forceful disappearance or even death at
the hands of the authorities.
Only two countries have an ‘open’ civic space rating,while 21 are rated ‘repressed’, six are rated ‘narrowed’
and 14 are rated ‘obstructed’.
The targeting of human rights defenders andjournalists increases during politically sensitive
periods such as elections, or when constitutions
are amended. Over the last several months, forexample, the ‘Standasmywitness’ campaign has
profiled human rights defenders from Niger, Togo
and Cote d’Ivoire in West Africa, and from Uganda
and Tanzania, as there was a marked increase in thetargeting of civil society in these countries ahead ofand during elections in 2020.

were often accompanied by the arrest of journalists
and human rights defenders – for covering peacefulprotests, and writing about state responses to thepandemic.
As states navigate through the social and economic
repercussions of the pandemic, it is anticipated thatcitizens will demand more action from governments
to facilitate an inclusive post-Covid economic
recovery process that will take into account theneeds of excluded and marginalised groups. We
are likely to see more scrutiny of government
policies and actions, and more protests against
rising inequality. This will trigger reprisals from
authoritarian leaders, who will impose restrictions tosilence journalists and human rights defenders andforce them to self-censor.
It will be imperative to strengthen coalitions ofcivil society groups, the media and human rights
defenders, to act in solidarity through campaigns
such as ‘Standasmywitness’. Such coalitions willbring together groups working on environmental,
land and indigenous rights, the rights of women,
media rights and the rights of LGBTI communities.
As these coalitions ‘stand as their witness’, they will
amplify the voices of those targeted by the state,
and engage in advocacy activities to secure theirrelease from detention.

Those who report on and advocate against corrupt
practices, indigenous and environmental rights, therights of women and LGBTI communities are often
more susceptible to attack from both state and nonstate actors.

Looking ahead
A major call from the campaign to African
governments has been to release human rights
defenders, journalists and activists in prison, asa means of decongesting prison populations anddetention centres to curb the spread of the Covid-19
pandemic.
But since the start of the pandemic, several
governments have used the pandemic itself as apretext for targeting human rights defenders andjournalists. Emergency measures imposed at thestart of the pandemic to limit the movement of
persons and enforce social distancing measures

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INTEGRATINGJOURNALISTSINTO THEHUMAN RIGHTS
DEFENDERSAGENDA
Samwel Mohochi writes about the National Coalition of Human Rights
Defenders (NCHRD) that was set up in western Africa and which brought together
journalists, activists and others working in the field of human rights. He argues
that it brought significant advantages, particularly in the quality ofreporting and the support for journalists.

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The National Coalition of
Human Rights Defenders(NCHRD) is a national
membership organisationthat aims to champion thesafety, security and wellbeing of human rights
defenders (HRDs). It wasestablished in November
2007, and registered as acharitable trust.

The NCHRD was a result of commitments made in
the Entebbe Plan of Action of 2005, in which various
members undertook to organise national coalitionsin the six member countries in East Africa and theHorn of Africa. It serves as a network of humanrights defenders.
The broad membership of the Defenders Coalition(the NCHRD in Kenya) includes Kenyan human rights
organisations, human rights defender groupings,
community-based groups and faith-based groups
working in the field to protect human rights. The
mixed membership enabled individual journalists
to become members of the coalition, and this led
to enriched human rights reporting. The Coalition
became particularly relevant in trying to protect
human rights defenders who faced recriminations.
At the inception of the Coalition a general plan ofaction was developed in a participatory manner,specifically developing proactive and reactive
interventions that included:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•

training and capacity building for HRDs;
strengthening the regional representatives;
availing expertise;availing resources;
creating a monitoring system;
creating a rapid response system;
provision of legal and psychosocial support ;identifying and supporting defenders at risk;
engaging in high-level policy dialogue with duty
bearers to advance the protection of HRDs.

The Coalition was to maintain a skeleton secretariat
while working with members and elected
representatives in the regions.
In early December 2008 Kenya held its generaland presidential elections, resulting in a disputed
presidential-election result. This led to general anarchy,and extrajudicial killings by state officials (over 400
shootings are documented). Another 1 000 more
killings were perpetrated by non-state actors, andwidespread displacement of over 300 000 people,
wanton looting and destruction of property occurred.
Human rights defenders intervened between January
and March 2018, documenting the atrocities that
occurred. At the height of the violence, prominenthuman rights defenders with visibility at national
level, and who were public commentators providing
alternative opinion in mainstream media, came under
severe attack. Many received death threats, andmembers of their families were targeted. Attacks werewidespread on social media platforms and in person.

PEOPLE, POWER, TRUTH – HUMAN RIGHTS, CIVIL SOCIETY & THE MEDIA IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Samwel Mohochi is an advocate
at Mohochi & Company
Advocates in Kenya.

59

Photo: Luis Tato/AFP via Getty Images

Supporters of the Kenyan opposition presidential
candidate protests in the Mathare slums of Nairobi on
August 9, 2017, a day after the presidential election.

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61

These ranged from mild verbal threats, to disruptions(for example, of news photo exhibitions), to extremely
life-threatening and in some cases deadly actualattacks on defenders. The Coalition immediatelyintervened by offering temporary internal and external
relocations to safe houses, and provided support todefenders at risk.
When a political settlement was reached in March
2008, a secret military operation was ordered in the
Mount Elgon region of western Kenya to deal withan insurgency by the Sabaot Land Defence Force(SLDF). The mountainous area was sealed off fromthe mainstream media, with only a few membersof the Kenya Correspondents Association (KCA
– a member of the Coalition) able to continue thereporting of the atrocities. A number of journalists
faced recriminations, and the Coalition had tointervene in an attempt to ameliorate the situation.
The existence of the Coalition resulted in improved
reporting by journalists on atrocities and humanrights issues in the area. It also resulted in improved
support and protection of journalists and other
HRDs. Human rights violations were better and more
widely reported, ensuring that overall case reportingon extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances,
atrocities, group violence and other human rights
violations could be documented more accurately andreported to the International Criminal Court processof 2010 to 2018.
In 2016-2017, Section 29 of Kenya’s Information
and Communication Act (KICA) was increasingly
being used to target bloggers and defenders ofhuman rights. HR Ds, journalists and activists whochallenged senior government officials at national andcounty level with respect to accountability, integrity
and corruption were often targeted and Section 29
used to silence them.
This law was deliberately being used to persecutethe HRDs, who were at times violently arrested. The
Coalition had to rapidly secure their release on bail,and provide legal representation and general support
to ensure their safety. The coalition was ultimately
involved in the litigation that successfully challenged
the constitutionality of Section 29 of KICA. The High
Court in Kenya subsequently declared Section 29
unconstitutional.
The coalition strengthened the ability of journalists
and defenders to use freedom of information requests
effectively, broadened and deepened their ability to
do impactful investigative journalism, and made thespace for defenders and journalists slightly safer.
The coalition further worked to set agreed standards

62

for reporting on elections. These were developed
jointly with the Media Council of Kenya.
In a system where media houses and platforms areoften controlled by owners, and at the mercy of thestate, who are key advertisers on those platforms, it
is particularly important for the Coalition to support
independent journalists and platforms. The Coalition
also works for the improvement of remuneration forjournalists.
The hybrid membership of the Coalition has ensured
a network of HRDs and journalists who work in thisarea. It has connected hundreds of freelancers andindependent activists to each other, and to available
resources and support systems. It has enriched
the human rights agenda, and offers immediately
improved protection to the most vulnerable; andit has made wider sharing and distribution of
information possible.
Some lessons learnt include:• Interventions in a crisis are best designed in aparticipatory manner to factor in the risk level tothe defender and the uniqueness of the risks, andshould be assessed on a case-by-case basis.

Patrick Meinhardt/AFP via Getty Images

The hybrid
membership of
the Coalition has
ensured a networkof HRDs andjournalists who workin this area. It hasconnected hundredsof freelancers andindependent activists
to each other, and toavailable resources
and support systems.
It has enriched
the human rights
agenda, and offers
immediately improved
protection to the mostvulnerable; and it has
made wider sharing
and distribution of
information possible.

• The strength of the Coalition lies in the harnessing of
the diversity of the membership.
• Interventions, both proactive and reactive, canbe developed by the members of the Coalition,
factoring in any unique and peculiar regionalfeatures.
• The focus of the work is always on prevention of risk,
and on mitigating and managing the risk.

In a file photo, residents of
Nairobi's Kibera slum follows thepresidential election while awaiting
official results in October 2017.

• Coalitions survive because of (or fail due to a lackof) participatory leadership, clarity on their mandate,accountability and transparency to the membership,
and clear and simple procedures and processes.
Another main advantage of the Coalition is that it
opens its membership to a broad range of actors who
stand in defence of human rights, including minority
communities, labour movement unions, communitybased groups, national-based groups and individuals
who can demonstrate human rights work in thecommunity.
The National Coalition for Human Rights Defenders
has and continues to remain alive to its niche; whichis to only intervene in matters of protection for HRDs,
to maintain a lean secretariat, to tap into and utilise
the expertise of its members on a pro bono basis attimes, and to make more proactive interventions forprevention – which appears to have strengthened the
Coalition and given it the relevant visibility, thereby
earning it its institutional credibility in Kenya.

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Corruption is the target ofboth investigative journalists
and anti-corruption NGOs
such as Transparency
International, Global Witness
and others.

INVESTIGATIVEJOURNALISM& ADVOCACY:
NATURAL
ALLIES?
Anne Koch discusses the relationship between the media and NGOs. She argues thatthe relationship between the two should be discussed more widely and mademore transparent, and that with careful calibration there is greaterroom for cooperation – without a concomitant loss of independence or integrity.

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While at Transparency International (TI), I launcheda collaborative initiative with the investigative
journalism network, the Organised Crime andCorruption Reporting Project (OCCRP). TI has
about 100 national affiliates or chapters aroundthe globe, working to combat corruption. OCCRP,
for its part, is an investigative reporting platform
formed by more than 40 non-profit investigative
centres, scores of journalists, and several major
regional news organisations across the world;
they do transnational investigative reporting, andpromote technology-based approaches to exposing
organised crime and corruption worldwide.
Investigative journalists are naming the corrupt; but
too often there is little follow-up, and the corrupt
often get away with it. The new OCCRP-TI projectis structured so that OCCRP will investigate andexpose, and TI will take up a number of stories orcases and undertake advocacy and campaigningwork around each case to press for longer-termchange. Nevertheless, the partnership raises thorny
issues about co-operation between investigative
journalists and NGOs.
Some years ago, as a senior manager at the BBC, I
co-led a global investigation into the cross-border
trade in asbestos with the International Consortiumof Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), Dangers in the
Dust: Inside the Global Asbestos Trade. Whiteasbestos, which the industry prefers to label as
chrysotile, is a cancer-causing fibre which kills
about 100 000 workers a year, according to theInternational Labour Organisation. While asbestos
is banned or restricted in much of the world, it isaggressively marketed in developing countries.
Our joint investigation revealed the tactics used by
the makers of asbestos building materials to market
their products to poorer countries. The multiple
cases and stories produced by the partnership madea substantial impact. The findings were not only
covered by about 250 media outlets in more than
20 languages; they were also used by public healthactivists and concerned politicians in countries suchas Brazil, India, Mexico and Canada.
ICIJ has compiled evidence of the impact thecollaboration made; they do this routinely. Later,
reviewing the impact, I thought that we could
have been even more systematic in the way wecollaborated and shared information during and after
our work was published. And as a journalist, this wasby no means the first time I had pause for thought
about how we might increase our impact by working
with campaigning organisations.

PEOPLE, POWER, TRUTH – HUMAN RIGHTS, CIVIL SOCIETY & THE MEDIA IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

Anne Koch is a UK-based journalist,
and currently the Programme Director
at the Global Investigative Journalism
Network (GIJN, gijn.org), the world’s
largest international network of
non-profit investigative journalism
organisations, with more than 200
member organisations in 80 countries.
Prior to that Anne worked at the
global anti-corruption organisation
Transparency International (TI),
as Director of the largest regional
department, Europe and Central Asia.
Before that her award-winning careerin BBC journalism included service
as deputy director of the English
World Service, executive editor of theBBC’s flagship radio news and current
affairs programmes, and editor of The
World Tonight. She has producedor edited over 100 documentaries.

65Reviewing the impact of the work, I thoughtthat we could have been more systematicin the way we collaborated and shared
information during and after the journalism was
published.

The relationship between investigative journalists
and NGOs, whether working on corruption or
on other issues, has always been complex andnuanced, because their roles often overlap. For
as long as I can remember this has been debatedand worried over, with claims that the relationshipneeded redefinition. There is a long history of bothcollaboration and antagonism between the two;but due to wider changes briefly touched upon
below, there has been a massive blurring of thelines. The relationship between the two, it is argued
here, should be discussed more widely, mademore transparent; and with careful calibration,
there is greater room for co-operation – without aconcomitant loss of independence or integrity.
Although the relationship between journalists andNGOs is not new, the effects of digital disruption –with the explosion of choice, and the empowerment(as many would see it) of audiences, as well as theirinfluence on the agenda and the low levels of trust
for journalists – have muddied the waters. In thecontext, too, of the dominance of the tech giants,
the decline in revenue and disappearance of once
reliable business models in a mere decade, not tomention the general decline in traditional journalism,
the line between professionally trained journalists
and alternative investigation and newsgathering has
blurred. The economics fuelling this trend has been
well documented; some of the money has gone
online, sometimes to fake news.
Much investigative journalism is now being carriedout by relatively small organisations, themselves:
NGOs that raise funds from foundations, private
donors, companies and governments; a trend thatstarted in the mid-1970s but has accelerated withthe collapse of orthodox business models.
In addition, one recent wide-ranging study
has documented the growth of what its authors
call 'stakeholder-driven media', a 'stunning range ofactors who control their own media and use thosemedia to directly affect individuals, communities,
organisations and society'. This is at the expense of
the mainstream media who have lost their share ofprevious agenda-setting influence at the expenseof the stakeholder-driven media. This has beenaccompanied, unsurprisingly, by a sometimes hostile
debate about what journalism is and who is qualified
to do it, and increasing and unprecedented threats
to journalists the world over, where the challenges
are huge and varied and include intimidation,
violence, media concentration and political control.

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Journalists in parts of the media, particularly in North
America and Europe, have long relied on a shieldof impartiality or objectivity and adhere to strict
editorial guidelines when dealing with campaigners,
charities and other NGOs. Impartiality as defined by
the BBC, as its head of news has argued, “is not thesame as objectivity or balance or neutrality … [a]t its
simplest it means not taking sides … about providing
a breadth of view.” This is at odds with the mission ofNGOs. But the concepts of impartiality and objectivity
are increasingly questioned and proponents for aso-called post-impartial world are growing, as are thenumber of journalists who speak openly and often
critically about the constraints of impartiality.

There is no doubt that the cooperation raises big
issues – ethical issues, security issues, a clash
of interests and so on. However, in this projectboth TI and OCCRP are clear that co-operation
will be enhanced further by mutual freedom andthe maintenance of each party’s independence,
structured and flexible cooperation (notcoordination per se), and trust. We will cooperateon the basis of clear evidence and data, with anunderstanding that each party has a different
job to do. Cooperation will be limited, and eachorganisation has its own staff, legal support andobjectives; and we have clear protocols aboutsharing information.

In many – if not most – parts of the world, the liberal
Western model of the necessary separation between
journalism and activism is not understood, let alone
recognised – one literally can be a journalist in themorning, an activist in the afternoon and a blogger inthe evening. I discussed this with young journalists
and activists in Moscow, to cite one example, andthey didn’t understand my concern with the blurringof lines. The work of NGOs in the area of journalism
and investigative journalism is important, too, where
there is a lot of media concentration or where media
freedom is weak or non-existent. In thoseenvironments, a lot of the work on investigating andpublicising corruption is done by NGOs.

If there is a joint commitment to independence,
truth and transparency with each other and withaudiences or constituencies about conflicts, aswell as how successes are achieved, we hope
the project will lead to greater impact. It should
be noted that we are experimenting, and ourcollaboration may not be entirely new – we justwant to make it more systematic.

It is in this context that TI and OCCRP struck up
a novel partnership. The initiative was launchedas the Global Anti-Corruption Consortium. As
well as investigating stories, OCCRP will build aglobal networked platform, while TI will advocateand campaign for longer-term change. This might
involve a national or global campaign; it mightmean taking steps to try and ensure that the corrupt
are prosecuted; in other cases it will be to try andaddress the systemic causes that lead to corruption– a corrupt judiciary, lax enforcement of moneylaundering laws, and others. TI hopes, too, where
possible, to be able to seek redress for victims ofcases of grand corruption.
Both organisations also hope that in time it will
extend to other NGOs and investigative journalists,
because greater cooperation with other like-minded
and independent NGOs is also needed. As Drew
Sullivan, founder, editor and director of OCCRP,
and a TI partner, said to me, “You have reporters
investigate a problem. Then activists. Then police. In
the three different investigations, information is lostand knowledge is not passed through. It’s inefficient.
We need to share our information better.”This partnership is coalescing at a moment whenmany North American and Western European
journalists increasingly have to contend withnew colleagues who don’t fit their assumptionsof what a journalist is. Many people who neither
have professional qualifications nor work inorganisations with an editorial structure are out
there writing and shaping public opinion – the twomost read blogs during the last UK election, forinstance, were from non-journalists.
Moreover, trained journalists and researchers arebeing hired by campaigning, non-governmentalorganisations to publish investigative stories.
Entities trying out new models include ProPublica,
the Kaiser Foundation and Open Secrets in the US,
as well as some of the national chapters affiliatedwith TI in Russia, Honduras, Montenegro and theCzech Republic – to cite a handful. Global Witness,for example, employs journalists and has both
initiated and investigated major stories that havebeen picked up by major media outlets such as The
Financial Times, The Guardian and ABC News.
Drew Sullivan from OCCRP believes that we areexperiencing “a Gutenberg moment” – and that
we must catch up with changing times. What wehave traditionally called ‘journalism’ is disappearing
because of the above-mentioned blurring of roles
between activists, bloggers, citizen journalists,
watchdogs and journalists.

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67

68

Getty Images

In 2010 the International Consortium of Investigative
Journalists and the BBC released a report titled
Dangers in the Dust: Inside the Global Asbestos Trade
which revealed tactics by asbestos manufacturers tomarket their dangerous products to poorer countries.
The findings were covered by about 250 media outlets
in more than 20 languages and were also used bypublic health activists and concerned politicians incountries such as Brazil, India, Mexico and Canada.

PEOPLE, POWER, TRUTH – HUMAN RIGHTS, CIVIL SOCIETY & THE MEDIA IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICAPEOPLE, POWER, TRUTH – HUMAN RIGHTS, CIVIL SOCIETY & THE MEDIA IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

69

The mainstream media have lost their shareof previous agenda-setting influence at theexpense of the stakeholder-driven media.
This has been accompanied, unsurprisingly,
by a sometimes hostile debate about whatjournalism is and who is qualified to do it,
and increasing and unprecedented threats
to journalists the world over, where thechallenges are huge and varied and include
intimidation, violence, media concentration,and political control.

“If you can’t tell them apart, they are doing the samething,” states Sullivan. “They are all investigators.
Journalists don’t need to be activists – we just needto agree on the findings.” He believes we need todefine new roles and confront persistent corruption
with “truth, activism and good policy, an enterprisethat is at the heart of democracy, by building
networks of like-minded investigators.” And thisis why OCCRP is building a collaborative platform
where journalists and NGOs can share information.
“Journalism ethics are important, but so is thepower and money of crime and corruption in thedeveloping world. We’re losing the battle. Badly.”
But why would an NGO such as TI want tocooperate with investigative journalists? The firstreason is to share essential evidence and facts– it really is as basic as that. Investigators (bothjournalists and law enforcement professionals)
simply have more experience and know-how ininvestigating cases, and often journalists havebeen more open to sharing information than law
enforcement agencies, although of course the latterplay a role in the wider picture. Good investigative
journalists provide documents and evidence, thematerial that NGOs need to do their advocating andcampaigning.
The Panama Papers case is an obvious recent
example, as are the so-called Lux Leaks documents.
These cases gave rise to extensive work by someNGOs on whistleblowing policy and the role ofaccountancy firms as enablers of corruption and tax
avoidance – numerous others could be cited.
A second vital reason is impact. Journalists are often
better able to package and disseminate findings,
and to reach bigger audiences. When Global
Witness carried out an undercover investigation oflawyers in New York City and shared their findings
with CBS’s 60 Minutes programme, this assured
an audience of millions. In other cases, it’s about
targeting a particular constituency of readers orviewers. Journalism also helps to shape public
opinion against sleaze in government, scrutinises
laws and regulations, and can prompt governments
to respond. One of the most challenging areas incombating corruption is to figure out what has an
impact – in short, what works.
A key piece of evidence comes from TI itself.
It conducted an extensive survey of business
management in 30 countries on the best ways tofight corruption, gathering responses from 3 000
business people across 13 sectors including real

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PEOPLE, POWER, TRUTH – HUMAN RIGHTS, CIVIL SOCIETY & THE MEDIA IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

estate, banking, mining, and so on. The survey asked
them to rank the effectiveness of six measures, from
corporate due diligence to national anti-bribery laws
to international treaties. Investigative journalism
came out on top: business people in 20 of the 30
countries surveyed chose investigative journalism as
the most effective tool at fighting corruption.

enhance the important work of investigations done
by civil society – whether by journalists, NGOs or
academics who are under attack in many partsof the world, including in the US, and challenged
by unprecedented levels and penetration of
propaganda and false news – we need to experimentwith new forms of collaboration.

GIJN has shown the impact it can make aroundthe world. OCCRP has its own impressive metrics
showing the impact of its journalism on corruption:
more than $5.7 billion in assets frozen or seized bygovernments, more than 1 400 company closures,indictments and court decisions; 84 criminal
investigations and government inquiries launched
as a result of its stories; and the list goes on. Thiswas one of the many factors that led to the current
collaboration with OCCRP.

Cooperation will be realised when there is more
systematic sharing of evidence and data. Some ofthis data should also be made available to citizens,
who can then use it to become informed about
issues affecting them directly. Success in the future
may well mean collaboration, because shining a lighton the corrupt requires combing and synthesisingmultiple information streams; and this piecing
together of the puzzle will only become more
important and complex in the future, requiring a new
quality of collaboration and joint action.

Despite TI’s research, the reality is that while an
exposé can bring attention to an issue, raise thestakes and even be a catalyst for change, it isfollowing it up with persistent advocacy, public
mobilisation and other factors that most often
leads to institutional change. However, the impact
of journalism can easily be blunted by many otherforces. The role that investigative journalism plays
is part of a wider picture, which TI has compared to
a complex machine with many interrelated parts:
if one part isn’t functioning, it can throw the wholemachine out of kilter, or stop it working altogether.
It is this relationship between what investigation
can provide and the need to extend it to otherorganisations that led to the collaboration with
TI. In fact, going back to my work at the BBC with
the ICIJ on asbestos, the purpose of collaborationis the amplification of impact, whether between
journalists or between journalists and campaigners.
In a globalised world where reliable information isincreasingly challenged, we could do more to raise
our game and make greater impact. NGOs alreadyprovide a lot of research and expertise, analyticaldepth and case studies. They pick up cases when
the journalists are finished, in effect creating a longtail to the story by advocating for change. This is at
the heart of how they can improve impact.
Despite the blurring of lines that I have discussed,
I remain convinced that there is a fundamental
difference between journalists and NGO activists.
Journalists shouldn’t be campaigners, and viceversa. They don’t need to be. But to be effective,neither side can be complacent, or draw linesthat limit real cooperation. In order to protect andIf journalists and activists and campaigners aregoing to work together, then some basic groundrules need to be established. For one, evidence
should be fundamental for advocates and activists,
as well as for journalists, if the starting point is acommitment to uncover and disseminate the truth.
Cooperation should be transparent, both between
journalists and civil society, and with audiences andother constituencies about the nature and extent ofthat cooperation, as well as how the work is funded.
Cooperation depends on mutual independence – ifcollaboration was portrayed on a Venn diagram, theoverlap between parties to a shared investigation
would constitute a thin sliver; each has to have its
own staff, and legal, security and risk support – andclear understanding of potential conflicts of interest.
In conclusion, it would be a mistake to believe thatjournalists and advocates or activists can remainunchanged by this cooperation – by understanding
we’re in a battle, and we have to act politically (notpoliticise our work) on what we can unite around,despite our differences.
This is an edited extract of the chapter 'Investigative
Journalism and Advocacy: Natural Allies?' by Anne
Koch, from the book Global Teamwork: The Riseof Collaboration in Investigative Journalism editedby Richard Sambrook. It is made possible courtesyof the Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism,
University of Oxford. For the complete book, please
go to https://reutersinstitute.politics.ox.ac.uk/
our-research/global-teamwork-rise-collaborationinvestigative-journalism

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THE MOSTMEANINGFULIMPACT IS
THROUGH
COALITION

Mark Lee Hunter and Anton Harber, two of the foremost experts on media andhow it intersects with civil society, sat down for a fireside chat recently to exchangethoughts, theories and ideas. They shared powerful insights into the role of the media,
the role of civil society, and the role of social justice organisations – and into how,when co-operating in a transparent manner, they can have meaningful impact.

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MARK: I’ll start with a provocative comment,with Anton’s permission. For me, civil society
organisations, NGOs, et cetera, are media.
They own their own media. Some of themactually have budgets. Some of them havecapacity. In some cases, the NGOs actually
did the work when journalists were not doing
it. And that still continues today. If we consider
the media and NGOs working together, onsome kind of reform or accountability agenda,
which I assume is the goal, then the audiencereach and capabilities of those organisations
should be considered part of the asset base,on condition that there is some kind of
guiding principle that brings people together.
But this would assume at least some level ofcoordination; it’s not going to be the sort ofthing where journalists do what they do, andNGOs do what they do, and if by chance it
comes together, then is that not wonderful?
I think we’re past that. So, that’s my opening
remark.
ANTON: One, let me say that Mark makes thepoint that it’s not new; and in this part of theworld, it is not new. Particularly in times of stressin the media, which has brought non-profits,
governments and civil society together withjournalists when they have a common purpose.
But it can.
MARK: Anton, allow me to ask: is that how it
worked during apartheid?
ANTON: Yes – it worked in a number of different
ways. So sometimes… I will say this: sometimes,
as journalists, when we were having trouble
publishing something we knew – either justbecause of the law, or because we were… or our
newspapers were threatened with closure, or our
editors were –MARK: – were threatened with jail?
ANTON: Yeah. Or were nervous about publishing it– we would take it to civil society, and say: “Look,if you can put this together into a report or if you
can say this in a statement, it makes it easier for
us to report it.” So we had a number of options
when we were under pressure. One of them
was to take it to foreign correspondents. It wasthen printed overseas, and then became more
publishable at home. But then, another [method]
was working with human rights organisations, forexample.

PEOPLE, POWER, TRUTH – HUMAN RIGHTS, CIVIL SOCIETY & THE MEDIA IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

DR MARK LEE HUNTER
is a founding member of
The Global Investigative
Journalism Network,
the principal authorof Story-Based Inquiry: A
Manual for Investigative
Journalists (UNESCO 2009)
and an adjunct professor andsenior research fellow at the
INSEAD Social Innovation
Centre in Fontainebleau,
France. He has taught andtrained in 40 countries onfive continents. Hunter’s
journalism earned him IRE,
SDX, National Headliners,
Clarion and H.L. Mencken
Free Press Awards. In 2018,
he pioneered investigative
collaborations with NGOs inan eight-country investigation
for Greenpeace. His scholarly
work has been publishedwidely. He is the author or coauthor of Modern Investigative
Journalism: A Comprehensive
Curriculum (2019), Poweris Everywhere: How
Stakeholder-driven Media
Build the Future of Watchdog
News (2017), The Hidden
Scenario and The Story Tells
the Facts, among others.

ANTON HARBER is the Caxton
Professor of Journalism (Adjunct) at
the University of the Witwatersrand,
Johannesburg. He has a 35year career in journalism, media
management and training. He wasfounder-editor of the anti-apartheid
newspaper the Weekly Mail (nowthe Mail & Guardian), Editor-inChief of South Africa’s leading
television news channel eNCA,
and chief executive of Kagiso
Broadcasting. He is convenor ofjudges for the Taco Kuiper Award
for Investigative Journalism and has
served on multiple boards, and as
a judge on the Sanlam Financial
Journalism Awards, the Vodacom
South African Journalism Awards
and the CNN/Multichoice African
Journalism Awards. Harber wrote
Diepsloot (Jonathan Ball, 2011) and
The Gorilla in the Room (Mampoer
Shorts, 2013). He co-edited the firsttwo editions of The A-Z of South
African Politics (Penguin, 1994/6),
What is Left Unsaid: Reporting
the South African HIV Epidemic(Jacana, 2010), and Troublemakers:
The Best of SA’s Investigative
Journalism (Jacana, 2010).

73

To me, that confirmedthat under certain
conditions, civilsociety organisations
are in fact an alternate
distribution network.
They get to the people
who care about thestory.

I’ll tell you a story about quite a strange
cooperation between human rights organisations
and ourselves at the Weekly Mail. During the stateof emergency, in the 1980s, what happened wasthat the Detainees’ Parents Support Committee– which was an organisation that gave support topeople detained during the state of emergency –wanted to publish the full list of people detained,
for obvious reasons: they wanted their names,
the full extent of the list, the families’ names. They
wanted to know these people who had been
identified, et cetera.
There was a tough legal issue; and the tough legal
issue was that they came up with quite a toughimaginary legal opinion that said: ‘If you do it in acertain way, we think you’ve got a defence if you’reprosecuted.’ It was saying that ‘we will publish thenames of confirmed detentions’ – because, since
they have been confirmed by the authorities, they[the authorities] had published those names.
So it was a bit of legal dancing around. But wewere extremely vulnerable at the time, because wewere threatened with closure. So this is what we
agreed to do. It was like a triple step. It was like,“I’ll tell you what: we will write about it in our paper
this week that we are going to do it [publish] next
week. I bet you one of the mainstream papers will
do it to pre-empt us.” And sure as hell, we founda way to publish a list of the detainees’ names:“We’re going to do it next Friday, when we publish
our newspaper.” And of course next Thursday, The
Star – which was the big mainstream paper at thetime – published it.

So the Greenpeace people were saying, “We aregoing to pitch this,” and I was saying to myself(I didn’t say it to them!), “No way.” But I didn’t
care about that, because Greenpeace has 70
million social media followers and three million
paying members, and I said to myself: “They area news network.” And that’s one of the reasons
I wanted to work with them in the first place.
And I thought, you know, if they publish it, thestory gets out. And what happened was, thereport was downloaded 150 000 times in France– which is more than the circulation of all but Le
Monde and Le Figaro.

MARK: It is particularly interesting. You know,
one of the assumptions that – it’s embeddedin that story, if I’m not mistaken – is that thestory was more important than the credit you
got for it.

And a mass of environmental news websites
in France picked up the story, and thefarmers attacked it, which meant more
people were hearing about it. To me, that
confirmed that under certain conditions, civilsociety organisations are in fact an alternate
distribution network. They get to the people
who care about the story. They don’t persuadepeople on the other side of the aisle to jump in;
but they do represent an alternative channel
that, if it’s properly set up (Greenpeace hadalready done that), then it’s not a problem, if
the issue is getting the story out rather thangetting credited in Le Monde. Which I don’t
give a shit about, being credited in Le Monde; I
was concerned about having the investigation
out.

ANTON: Yes – under those conditions, theimportant thing is to get it out, and that is whatmatters.

ANTON: But Mark, let me ask you this question: doyou find, in your experience, that it opens one up toa charge of partisanship?

MARK: You know… I’m not comparing what
I have to live with to the apartheid era. But I
will say that in 2018, I did an investigation with

MARK: Yeah. Sure. But that’s the audiences’
expectations these days. And not only in the
United States, where we see that tendency

And we thought, “That’s great, we got it out!”
The NGO got it out, the journalists worked withthem, and we even got the mainstream media
to carry it out. So I think that was a particularlyinteresting dance we did with civil society, to get
out important information.

74

Greenpeace – Greenpeace sponsored it. It
was about agricultural pollution. And we weregoing to publish in eight countries. And I knewthat no mainstream media in France would
touch the story. Greenpeace is considered
an enemy of the French state, because they
are anti-nuclear, and there is a long history –that includes assassination. I never believed
for a moment that we were going to see this[investigation] in Le Monde, or Le Figaro. They
would say, “Greenpeace? They are an activist
group. Suspect.” Or whatever. Regardless of
how good or bad the investigation was. I think
it was pretty good, but… you know, I’m biased.
I wrote it!

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carried through to a really dramatic level,
where I think the latest information is that 70
per cent of the people who watch Fox News
think that [Donald] Trump won the election.
I mean, my God! There are information silos
and information bubbles. And the digital news
report by Rasmus Kleis Nielsen at Oxford
documented the growing partisan nature of the
public.
ANTON: I agree with you. I suppose one is… justbeing aware, and conscious of that limitation.
But what it also tells me is that it’s critical to
be transparent about that relationship, and the
purpose and the nature of that relationship – is it
not?
MARK: Yeah, I agree absolutely. And by the way,for me that ties into a larger trend, which is thatour 20th-century stance in the news business
was that we were going to be objective; we
present the facts, and the public makes up its
minds. I’m not going to diss the intrinsic meritsof that position – I find it very noble, in many
ways. I’m not convinced that it corresponds tocontemporary reality. For the reasons we haveevoked previously, but also because, you know,
for many years – and I know you’ve heard this
too, Anton – for many years, people in ourclasses, on the streets, in dinner conversations,would say, “Oh, nobody can be objective!” And
we always thought, “Well, what do they know?”
Well, maybe they were right. Maybe they
were expressing something, in a relatively
inarticulate way, that actually makes somesense. Now for me, objectivity resides inverifiable facts. Facts that will be establishedby any person of good faith. Not everyone isof good faith. But if you and I are standing at
the crossroads and a tank comes by, it’s going
someplace, and something is going to happen
when it gets to that place – those are facts.
And if somebody says, “What tank?”, theneither they weren’t paying attention, or they’relying. So that level of objectivity is there and isalways going to be important. Reality counts.
But what is increasingly taking its place istransparency. This is who we are. This is what
we want. This is what we are prepared to do to
get it. I don’t mind working with those people,
to the extent that I know who they are, what
they want, and what they are prepared to do
to get it. Due diligence, if you will. I have noproblem with that at all: this is what we standfor. This is the community we defend. I think
the idea of defending a community is very
central. And I would be astonished if you differ
with that point, given your history.
ANTON: I don’t differ at all. To respond to what
you’ve said, 'objectivity' is a word I try not to use,
because –MARK: What makes you say that?
ANTON: It’s no longer valuable, in my teaching
and my discussion about these things. It’s oneof those phrases, I guess, like ‘fake news’, that isbetter not used; because they are so used andabused that they are no longer particularly useful.
I would much rather talk about accuracy, balance,
fairness and honesty. And transparency. I think
there is a growing demand among journalists to
be fully transparent about their interests, theirinvolvements, their history, their biases, andwhatever partisanship there might be in what theydo. I think that is incredibly important.
Honesty is an incredibly important issue. Let me
put it to you as a question. (And I say ‘honesty’in the sense that sometimes, if you’re a journalist
trying to make point A and you come across afact which contradicts that point, you have an
obligation as a journalist, I think, to deal with thatfact – not to dismiss it or hide it.) Does a civilsociety advocacy organisation have the same ideal,
or is there a potential contradiction there? And
I say that because I know of experiences wherea civil society organisation – or a lawyer one isworking with – where you both know somethingwhich does not serve your case; and they are
tempted to argue, “Let us avoid it – let us put it
aside.”
I do know of occasions where the question ofwhat I am saying – honesty, or openness, ortransparency – can conflict with a civil society
organisation. If they do not have –MARK: With news organisations, too.
ANTON: That is true. But it is clear to me that if
you’re a journalist, and you know a fact that you’re
uncomfortable with, you cannot ignore it. You haveto deal with it. You cannot hide it.
MARK: Well, actually, you don’t have to deal
with it; you can hide it. People in news
organisations – certain news organisations –do that all the time. I don’t think you have had a

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75

LEFT: Greenpeace activists demonstrate with a bowl of liquid manure and banners
reading "Manure in the water is shit!" and "Keep the crap out of our water!" in frontof the Reichstag building housing the Bundestag in Berlin on June 21, 2018.
BELOW: President Richard M. Nixon announces his resignation on television in Washington, D.C.
BOTTOM LEFT: The book Journalism of Outrage penned by David L Protess et al.

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Photo: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

Photo: Tobias Schwarz/AFP via Getty Images

Photo: Hulton Archive/Getty Images

BOTTOM RIGHT: Julian Assange of WikiLeaks fame speaks toreporters on July 26, 2010 in London, England.

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I would much rather talk about accuracy,balance, fairness and honesty. And
transparency. I think there is a growing
demand among journalists to be fullytransparent about their interests, theirinvolvements, their history, their biases, andwhatever partisanship there might be in what
they do. I think that is incredibly important.

lot of luxury in your career, in terms of freedom;
but I do think you have had that luxury.
The luxury of being honest, even if you had afight about it with CSOs and, I am sure, theAfrican National Congress, and all that…
ANTON: Yes, I think you’re right. I suppose I comefrom a position where I say, in an oppressedsociety – as we had until 1994 – the rules and theethics are different. In an open society, I think were-assert more strongly a set of journalistic ethics,
based on –MARK: Well, I hope we do. I cannot say that,based on what I see at Fox [Fox News] andits competitors on the right in Breitbart. There
are things they [Breitbart] do not deal with.
There are things they just sweep away. This isa major dividing line in ethical journalism rightnow. Now; do civil society organisations lie, dothey conceal information? I have not had thatexperience with Greenpeace. Never. They ask
this for stuff we could not do, but that is forsomething else. Those things did not include
lying, they included documenting problems
where we could not get the data. And when weput it to them that way, they said, “Okay, you
cannot get the data; we do not do it.” They areevidence-based; not everyone is.
So that requirement to accept facts whether
you like them or not is central to what we aretalking about. And honestly, if you cannot
agree on that with a civil society organisation,
you are talking to the wrong people, in my view.
It doesn’t matter how many members they
have, or how much money they have; you aregoing to have a problem. Because sooner orlater, you’re going to say, “This is what it is”, andthey are going to say, “Well, that is not what wewant it to be – change your story.” I don’t see
why anyone who respects themselves would
put up with that crap.
ANTON: So, you’re saying there has to be a synergyof value between the journalist and the civil society
organisation…?
MARK: Well, you’re taking it up a level ofabstraction and I agree. I’ll make it more
specific: the key value has to be that reality
comes first, period. Whether or not you likewhat the reality is. You do not hide facts thathave a material effect on your community.
That is treachery. It is taking them for fools, it

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is playing with their futures. Then, with theirsecurity. How dare you? How would anyone
do that? I am not saying you ever did that,
Anton. I know very well you did not. But, you
know… there are people who do. And they callthemselves journalists. Which is like a jackal
calling itself a lion.
ANTON: Right. Right.
MARK: And I suppose there are civil society
organisations that do the same. I know of acouple on the right, there is James O’Keefe,
there is David Daleiden, who leave out the partof the story that doesn’t suit their agendas, andwho publish stuff that ruins peoples’ lives. They
are punishment organisations. They are nottruth seekers. This is part of the landscape. But
it’s not the people that I would choose to workwith – or you, or the people in The CHARM
Initiative. At least, I hope so.
ANTON: Well, one experience I have had isthat within our journalism department at Wits
University, we have a project that brings together
civil society and journalists, called the Wits Justice
Project. It focuses on exposing and tacklingproblems in the justice system, particularly people
wrongly imprisoned. We created that projectprecisely because we saw the power of civilsociety lawyers and journalists combining to tackle
social problems. We wanted to demonstrate it
working with our students.
Interesting example. A couple of years ago, theWits Justice Project produced a major story, about
a person who had managed to get out of prison
after 17 years who had been wrongly imprisoned
from day one. It was a great story, and he was avery interesting guy. The Guardian in London wereabout to run the story when they realised the Wits
Justice Project were an advocacy organisation– and they declined it. And we were surprised,because we thought the Guardian would get thisrelationship; and naturally, we were transparent
with them in the initial product of the Wits Justice
Project, which brought these interests together,and we thought it was fine as long as we weretransparent about that. But they declined what was
in fact a very good story, that in every other respectthey were ready to run.
MARK: Well you know, to me, these situations…
you know, we always frame these things interms of ethics, in the purity of our ethics. To
me, the underlying question is about value

propositions. It is about the economics. If what
you are selling to people is a certain concept
of independence, including neutrality towards
the outcome of stories, then you find yourself
having to make that kind of decision. I had todeal with a situation like that as well. It was on
a transnational project that I worked on theyear before I went to work with Greenpeace.
And in fact, it was the trigger that made me say,
“I have got to go and work with Greenpeace, or
someone like Greenpeace.”
It was an investigation on the European
parliament which did not start with a clear
hypothesis. It started as a data collection
project. We were trying to see how people in
the European parliament spent an allowancethey had – a significant piece of money, forme, 4 300 euros a month – on their national
offices. So we compiled all this data… we didn’t
really know what we were looking for, it was
not the best project I’d worked on. We realisedthat a third of these deputies had no offices.
They were just taking the money. They could
not spend it on an office, because they did nothave an office.
So we got that story out in 28 countries; andthen, civil society organisations – notably
Transparency International – came to us andsaid, “We really want your data.” And the otherjournalists on the project said, “Oh, no – that’s
our data.” I thought, “Well, actually, that is ourwork product – the data is public.” But then I
challenged this position, and I was told, “We
are not activists.”
And I thought, “We aren’t activists.” So why are
we doing this story? Are we doing this story tosay, “Oh, you have been bad – you’ve taken theEuropean Union taxpayers’ money.”? [Or] are
we doing this story because we want it to stop?
If we want it to stop, we have to work withsomeone who has the lobbying and organising
capacity that we lack, and that will makesomething stop. That was my point of view on
the thing. I was not working on that story tosay, “Oh, what a cool project.” I was working on
the story because I wanted something to stop.
And when that divide became clear in thegroup, I was in the minority position. Which iswhat I seemed to be fairly comfortable in, but…
I was in the minority position. I said: “Okay,
fine – you do it your way. Next time out of the

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Even if you look at
the Watergate case,there was a de facto
coalition. It wasn’t
the Washington
Post that brought
down Nixon; it wasa de facto coalitionof powerful social
forces, of government
institutions…

box, I’m working with someone who is set up tochange.” I am not going to pretend that simply
because I say something in a newspaper one
day, it emits a flood of other information [thatmeans] something is going to happen. And
by the way, that view of how investigative
journalism obtains results was directly
challenged in a book by David L. Protess et
al. that I’m sure you know, Anton – it’s The
Journalism of Outrage.
ANTON: Yes, an important book.
MARK: Probably the greatest single workin the history of agenda-setting studies,okay? The single greatest work. Okay; if
you look at the co-authors, they are all theheavyweights in that field. They knew exactly
the importance of what they were doing.
And I find it astonishing that the journalism
business largely ignored that book. Okay, I
mean, I never see references to it (except in
my own writings). I never hear it come up ina discussion. When I mention it to people,
they’ve never heard of it.
So, for the basis of the recording, I will simply
say that what Protess and his people did was tolook at six investigations that led to results. And
they discovered that in every case, behind thescenes, behind the publication, the journalists
were forming coalitions with people – withcivil society groups, with activists’ lawyers,
legislators, prosecutors – to get something
done. And I mean, they didn’t broadcast it, they
didn’t say they were doing it; but they did it. And
they got the results.
If you look at different pieces from the history ofinvestigative journalism… Clark. R. Mollenhoff– who, you know, was a great reporter – began
his career in Iowa City; and in his memoirs, hediscusses how that [Iowa City] was one of themost corrupt, crime-ridden cities he’d ever seen.
And to bring it down, he formed an alliance witha prosecutor, an honest cop and a newspaper.
And they chased the crooks out of town. Or put
them in jail. I mean, you know, to me this should
be Journalism 101.
Even if you look at the Watergate case,there was a de facto coalition. It wasn’t the
Washington Post that brought down Nixon;
it was a de facto coalition of powerful social
forces, of government institutions… notably
the judiciary and the FBI. These guys opened80

the door and kept the heat on. I’m not dissing
their [the Washington Post’s] work; they did agreat job. They did an important job, a historicjob. But to pretend they brought down thepresident of the United States all on theirlonesome is grotesque. And you know, I’ve
talked about this with Gerard Ryle, who I
actually exchanged emails with because I wasgoing to say something in a book about how I
see IJ [investigative journalism] work. And I said,“They didn’t just depend on public outrage. They
had lined up allies who were going to put themessage forward after the story came out.” And
Gerard said, “Yes – that is exactly what we do.”I’ll return to the initial point, okay? If your value
proposition is, “We are neutral, and we arehands-off,” then of course you’re going to havea different point of view on whether or not you
should be taking more or less [of an] activistreformist role.
And another side riff is – excuse me for that –historically, that is not what the news media did.
They went on crusades. News organisations
were crusading organisations as well, it was oneof their roles. We have gotten away from that.
Okay, fine; somebody else took on that role, andthey are called civil society organisations. But
if what we’re selling is neutrality, and we don’tcare about what we actually achieve, that is one
business model. There is value in that for a lotof people. It’s one of the key values that is left toheritage news organisations – great.
But there is another standpoint that says, “We
are in the game to change the world.” Or as
Karl Marx said – with resonance even for a
non-Marxist like myself – “The point is not tounderstand the world, but to change it.” If thatis the value proposition, then you have to haveallies. There is no other way you’re going to
get anything done. The single most important
insight in The Journalism of Outrage is that alone journalist is a loser. They always lose.
And even in the contemporary era… if you
look at Andrew Jennings – the extraordinary
figure who brought down FIFA – Andrew set
up a worldwide coalition: of other media, of law
enforcement, of civil society groups. How shall I
put it… he was not exactly running an army, but
he was accompanied by a growing cohort ofother forces who could keep up the pressure on
FIFA. If he had not had that, he would have been

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painted as a lunatic, screaming in his corner.
Andrew was not a lunatic – he does screamsometimes, but he is certainly not a lunatic! And
he inspired this movement. And that is how he
won – with the help of the FBI, who eventually
noticed what he was doing, came to him andsaid: “Do you have any information that might
be of interest to us?”. And Andrew said, “Onlyabout 30 years’ worth…”
ANTON: No, you’re making a very important point.
Certainly in our experience, as David Protess
illustrated in his work, in his book, the combination
for me of journalists, civil society and lawyers are a
special change –MARK: Yeah, that’s very insightful, andabsolutely true.
ANTON: If we say, “The starting point is a positive
one. What is the best way in which we can drivesocial change on a particular issue?” To me,
we can demonstrate very clearly that it is thatcombination.
MARK: Yes. No question.
ANTON: And then it becomes a question ofmanaging the relationship between them. Because
they’re working for the same goal, but they havedifferent methods, and different approaches. And
sometimes on detail, conflicting tactical issues– not broad strategic aims, but tactical issues.
And you have to manage that relationship to theirmutual benefit. It may mean the journalist waits
to publish when it serves the other tactically. For
example –MARK: It may mean that publication is coordinated to the launch of an NGO campaign.
ANTON: Correct. Correct. If your starting point
is social change, then those are the pacts you
make to harness those forces which together are
incredibly powerful forces for social change.
MARK: They are certainly a lot more powerfulthan media by itself.
ANTON: Exactly.

about? If that is not the case… I’ve neverbeen involved in a situation where membersof a coalition betrayed each other around an
investigation, but I am sure it could happen;
or maybe, someone is not going to want tolisten to the lawyers – “Screw you, I’m braverthan them…”
ANTON: Yeah.
MARK: …you know, maybe they’re not goingto listen to sense. You know? I mean, I
happen to be one of the people who thinks
Julian Assange made a historic contribution
to our profession. And I have to say that I
think he would have been in a better position
if he’d spent more time holding his coalition
together, instead of constantly getting out infront of them and presenting them with faits
accomplis.
ANTON: Yes, it was a major setback for everyone
when his relationship – with the media, for example– broke down. With his media partners.
MARK: Yeah… I don’t think he’s entirely toblame for that. But, you know… honestly, youknow, I’m on the record as saying, “I think hewas betrayed.” I could be wrong about that,
I don’t know what pressures The Guardian
were subjected to – except from a distance;
they looked hellacious from a distance.
But yeah; that relationship broke down, his
relationship with his funders and protectors
broke down, you know, he lost lawyers as hewent along. All of this stuff was… you know,
it was consistent with his character and hisvalues. Which I wouldn’t call extreme, but
I would certainly say were… I don’t know,
it’s hard for me to think of a compliment toreturn. Maybe ‘extreme transparency’.
ANTON: Radical?
MARK: We can call it ‘radical transparency’,
if you will. But you know, it’s one thing to beradical, and it’s another thing to think about
the practicalities of ensuring that you don’t
end up alone.

MARK: Yeah. Yeah. So, these tactical things…
this brings us back to the issue of due
diligence: can you actually trust the motivesof the people you are working with? Are they
going to play by the same rules and sameinterpretation of the values you are talking

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A UNIQUE
MODEL OFPUBLIC
INTERESTHEALTHJOURNALISM
Marcus Low argues that it is entirely possible for a media service to align closely withadvocacy organisations, as Spotlight does; and that it can lead to demonstrable benefits
and quality improvements, while maintaining journalism principles and integrity.

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Editorial independence
and transparency are key
to managing close links
with civil society. South
Africa faces extreme healthchallenges. Around 13% of
the population are living with
HIV; every year, an estimated360 000 people fall ill withtuberculosis (TB); and rates
of diabetes, heart disease
and some cancers are on theincrease.

The country is also deeply unequal, in thatover 80% of people are dependent on an often
dysfunctional public healthcare system – less than
20% have access to the much better-resourced
private healthcare sector. In such a severely
unequal society, those with enough money to pay
for private healthcare are also more likely to be in aposition to pay for media.
The economic incentives are thus not particularly
strong for for-profit media to cover health issues
that affect mostly poor people. Add the fact thatnewsrooms in the country have shrunk – somehave disappeared altogether – and that theeconomic model that has sustained journalism formost of the last century is in crisis, and the outlook
for public-interest health journalism is bleak.
Whatever the reasons may be, over the last decade
our perception has been that many important
public interest health issues are insufficiently
covered in mainstream media. This is the gap that
Spotlight sets out to fill. Filling this gap is criticallyimportant for accountability in the healthcare
system, and for the health of our democracy.
‘Filling the gap’ has at times meant doing
investigative journalism (as with Spotlight’s
impactful Health4Sale series on corruption infour provincial departments of health). Often it
has meant reporting on why a new TB prevention
medicine is not yet available in the publichealthcare system, or why government has failed
to publish important new health data. It has meantcreating the space for experts to write opinion
pieces on critical issues in the healthcare system,
and making the latest HIV, TB and Covid-19
science accessible to the general public. At times
it has meant turning HIV data into accessible
data visualisations, and helping readers get amore accurate picture of the state of our various
epidemics.
In some respects Spotlight is typical of early 21stcentury donor-funded public interest journalism.
It is a small operation, with few staff. It receives
its funding from just a few international donors.
Articles are published under open Creative
Commons licences, and payment-free republication in mainstream media is encouraged.
There is no paywall, and no economic incentive
beyond maintaining donor funding. The mandateis clear and simple – produce compelling, in-depth
public interest health journalism, and get it read as
widely as possible.

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Marcus Low is the Editor of Spotlight,
published by SECTION27 (apublic-interest law centre) and theTreatment Action Campaign (an HIV
advocacy organisation). Spotlight
produces compelling, in-depth
public-interest health journalism, anddistributes it as widely as possible.

83Photo: Nomatter Ndebele

ABOVE: Learners protest in Limpopo, South Africa against the factthat many school children do not receive their full complementof textbooks by the time the school year starts. They held aprotest in Bisho to make their voices heard. The advocacy was
led by SECTION27 and Basic Education For All (BEFA).
RIGHT: In this file photo, then legal researcher at SECTION27,
Mluleki Marongo interviews a resident in an Eastern Cape village
in South Africa on poor access to ambulances. Most residents
do not bother calling ambulances as they do not arrive.

Photo: Anso Thom

Photo: Joyrene Kramer

FAR RIGHT: Families of the Life Esidimeni disaster listen toevidence being led at the Alternative Dispute Resolution.
It emerged that more than 144 Mental Health Care Users
had died when facilities were closed down by the provincial
government. Many went missing and over 1,250 were affected.
SECTION27 led much of the advocacy on this case.

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85

Spotlight shows thathigh journalistic
principles andjournalistic integrity
can successfully
be maintained ina context where
there are close
links to advocacy
organisations –provided that strict
internal and external
journalistic rules andchecks and balances
are put in place. Of
the various measures
discussed here, thecodifying of editorial
independence is
probably the mostimportant.

In 2020, Spotlight produced over 250 originalarticles, over 200 of which were republished on
popular South African mainstream websites suchas News24, Daily Maverick and AllAfrica – reaching
millions of readers in the process.
While typical of donor-funded journalism in somerespects, Spotlight is unique in other areas. Most
notably, it provides an example of how highjournalistic standards can be maintained in acontext of close links with advocacy organisations– Spotlight is published by SECTION27 (a public
interest law centre) and the Treatment Action
Campaign (an HIV advocacy organisation).
The first critical element to making such a
relationship with advocacy organisations work is thefact that Spotlight has been given complete editorial
independence – an independence that the editors
guard jealously. This is to say that much as theeditorial teams of most newspapers are structurally
shielded from the newspaper’s publishers, Spotlight
too is structurally shielded from its publishers, whichhappen to be two NGOs rather than a trust or alarge media company. As in any media organisation,
having such a firewall between the editorial teamand the publisher is critical to avoid the perception– and the actual risk – of a publication becoming amouthpiece for its owners.
The second critical element to managing thisrelationship is maximum transparency to readers.
Whenever SECTION27 or the Treatment Action
Campaign are mentioned in a Spotlight article,
a note is added to the article disclosing theconnection. Again, this is much the same as what
happens when a newspaper reports on its parent
company and discloses that connection.
While they are essential, internal measures suchas the above, and clearly distinguishing reportingfrom editorial content, are not sufficient on theirown, and should ideally be balanced by external
checks and balances. That is why Spotlight is alsoa member of the South African Press Council, andtherefore subject to the country’s system of media
self-regulation. In essence, this means that Spotlighthas undertaken to abide by the South African Press
Code, and the adjudication processes associatedwith the code. Among other consequences, thismeans that Spotlight could be ordered to publish
apologies or retractions, should rulings be madeagainst it by South Africa’s Press Ombud.
Of course, even if all of the steps above are taken,
public trust and a reputation for credible journalism

86

are things that must be earned, and things that taketime to establish. It is by reading a publication’s workover time that the public, and people in the media
or health sectors, form views on the credibility ofthat publication. A recent independent evaluationof Spotlight’s work suggests that since its launchin mid-2016, it has succeeded on this front – a viewthat is supported by the willingness of leading
mainstream media partners to republish Spotlight’s
work. In short, journalistic credibility and editorial
independence have both been established, andbeen seen to be established.
As an aside, additional context worth noting isthat both SECTION27 and the Treatment Action
Campaign also have public-interest mandates,
and that these mandates are broadly aligned withthose of public interest journalism. In this sense,
the potential conflicts of interest that have to be
managed are not as many or as serious as theywould be, had Spotlight’s publishers been for-profit
private companies active in the healthcare sector.

Benefiting from civil society networks
Provided that relationships are appropriately
managed from a journalistic perspective, as
described above, Spotlight’s links with advocacy
organisations also provide unique benefits.
Perhaps most usefully, Spotlight benefits fromthe rich network of individual and organisational
contacts that SECTION27 and the Treatment
Action Campaign have across South Africa’s nine
provinces.

Similarly, there were years of experience monitoring
the performance of the National Health Laboratory
Service, something which would turn out to provide
invaluable background when the country struggled
to keep up with Covid-19 testing demand. And ofcourse, there were long-established relationships
with many researchers and clinicians across thecountry – relationships built on years working
on HIV, TB and public healthcare services moregenerally.
Of course, from a journalistic perspective there isa risk that this kind of special access to existing
networks could lead to bias. However, this risk
can easily be managed – in the first place, byrecognising that the risk exists; but also by making
explicit efforts to cultivate alternative sources, andby strictly upholding core journalistic principles
such as fairness, the right to reply, transparency, andeditorial independence. It also helps, in this regard,that Spotlight works with a variety of freelance
journalists from a diverse set of backgrounds andwith varying levels of experience – these freelancers
being yet a further step removed from Spotlight’s
links with advocacy organisations.
Coming from journalism backgrounds, the Spotlight
editors are also keenly aware that readers will
judge Spotlight harshly for any whiff of bias in the
publication’s reporting. Accordingly, avoiding bias
in Spotlight’s reporting has been a top priority for
its editors from day one.
To summarise: Spotlight shows that highjournalistic principles and journalistic integrity can
successfully be maintained in a context where
there are close links to advocacy organisations –provided that strict internal and external journalistic
rules and checks and balances are put in place. Of
the various measures discussed here, the codifying
of editorial independence is probably the mostimportant.

The Treatment Action Campaign, for example, has a
network of around 200 branches across the country– most of which have adopted local healthcare
facilities to monitor, and who have invaluable local
know-how. Being linked to such networks gives
Spotlight unique access to the coalface of healthcare
service delivery in South Africa, and has assisted in
Spotlight being able to produce high-quality on-theground reporting.

The history behind Spotlight

These various networks, in addition to the deep
institutional memory of these organisations, alsomeant that when Covid-19 struck South Africa inMarch 2020, Spotlight was well-positioned and readyfor it. There were pre-existing links with community
healthcare worker groups that made it easier tocover this group of people’s need for personal
protective equipment than it would have been
without these links.

From the early 2000s to 2012 (when funding
for it dried up) the Treatment Action Campaign
published a magazine called Equal Treatment.
The magazine, often translated into four different
languages, explained in an accessible manner thescience of HIV and TB, and people’s rights in thehealthcare system, and was used as a form of mass
education and empowerment within the Treatment
Action Campaign and partner organisations. At

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its peak it was published five times per year, with
70 000 copies printed of each edition.
In 2011 SECTION27 and the Treatment Action
Campaign launched a second publication, called
the NSP Review. The focus of the NSP Review wason monitoring South Africa’s HIV and TB response,rather than the specific type of mass education
aimed for in Equal Treatment. In time, however, it
was recognised that the NSP Review’s reach wassomewhat limited – partly because it was explicitly
an NGO publication. For this reason the NSP Review
was shut down early in 2016, and a decision wasmade to launch Spotlight.
From the beginning, the idea behind Spotlight
was to create a journalistic entity that is editoriallyindependent from SECTION27 and the Treatment
Action Campaign. It thus represented a move awayfrom NGO publications such as the NSP Review andEqual Treatment, to a more traditional journalistic
entity that plays by the accepted rules of journalism
and fully subjects itself to the South African Press
Code.
In order to make this move, key leaders at
SECTION27 and the Treatment Action Campaign
had to be convinced that relinquishing control (byagreeing to full editorial independence for Spotlight)
was a necessary step to ensuring that people would
take Spotlight more seriously than they did the
NSP Review. Of course, people from SECTION27
and the Treatment Action Campaign could still
have opinion pieces published in Spotlight; butthese would be clearly marked as ‘comment andanalysis’, and opinion pieces from people at these
two organisations would get no special treatmentcompared to anyone from other organisations.
Behind this shift was a growing realisation andconsensus that public health issues in South Africa
were not being covered sufficiently by existing
mainstream media, and that this shortcoming
could only be addressed by increasing media
capacity. That is to say, there was a recognition
that supporting the expansion of independent
public interest journalism capacity would resultin systemic benefits that would assist all efforts
to improve access to quality healthcare, be theyfrom government, advocacy organisations, service
delivery NGOs, multinational health agencies,
or international donors. It would both increase
health sector accountability, and deepen public
understanding of health issues – in short, it would
serve the public interest.

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87

WHAT'S
NEXT?
This anthology has been produced as part of the Consortium to Promote Human Rights,
Civic Freedoms and Media Development (CHARM) Africa project and its ongoing work toprotect and expand the space for civil society organisations and human rights defenders
in the region, with more emphasis on frontline actors working on issues related to gender,
labour, LGBTQI+, and environmental and indigenous rights.
The project is implemented bya consortium of six regional partners: CIVICUS, Civil Rights Defenders, Defend Defenders,
Fojo Media Institute, Hub Afrique, and Wits Journalism; committed to working together
towards the realisation of a free and vibrant media and civil society in sub-Saharan Africa.
Thanks to funding from the Swedish International Development
Cooperation Agency (SIDA), we will continue to strengthen coalition building
between civil society, media and human rights defenders.
www.peoplepowertruth.africa
Contact: sofie.gullberg@lnu.se

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PEOPLE, POWER, TRUTH – HUMAN RIGHTS, CIVIL SOCIETY & THE MEDIA IN SUB-SAHARAN AFRICA

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