A few words from me in Cape Town this morning in solidarity with the Daily Maverick which has shut down (for 24 hours only) to highlight the plight of #journalism in South Africa. As many of my colleagues and friends head off for #Perugia and the #IJIF24 International Journalism Festival this week, please keep this top of mind.
FT Strategies have had the pleasure of working with The Maverick(s) on a number of occasions. Outstanding journalism from this incredible team over the past 15 years has helped shine a light on government graft and corruption.
With one of the most robust and liberal constitutions in the world, 🇿🇦South Africa🇿🇦 has long been upheld by a really powerful and fearless fourth estate.
However, the chips are down for local journalism. Says Branko Brkic, Styli C. and the team: "Local news has been destroyed by economic disruption and compromised newsrooms."
"... We felt compelled to highlight the global crisis journalism faces and what that means for our democracy and our economy. Newsrooms across the world and South Africa are retrenching staff and closing down."
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In a newsletter to supporters this morning, The Maverick team wrote:
"The impact is devastating. Just look around. Our cities are failing in lockstep with the demise of local journalism, with no accountability measures interrogating a broken system. With that, our economy can’t grow, businesses struggle to create new jobs, and the tax base shrinks, creating a larger burden per person...."
"... There are simply not enough journalists to counter the volume of corruption, mismanaged funds and ineptitude that we know is happening in municipalities and institutions throughout the country ... There is more than enough work to triple the number of journalists we currently have."
"Advertising revenue, grant funding, and philanthropic support are drying up.
After five years of Maverick Insider, only 27,960 amazing human beings ... have chosen to support us and keep our work free for all to access. This is just a small percentage of the site’s visitors, averaging around 10 million per month.
Sadly, it’s not enough to do the required job in a country ravaged by corruption.
We need to do much more for South Africa, like creating a dedicated team of journalists to cover our broken education system and establishing teams of local journalists to cover our eight biggest cities with a daily report.
So we had to do something drastic — something to show what it would feel like if journalism were silenced due to a failing market.
Today, there will be no reporting.
There will be no investigations.
There will be no updates.
There will be no accountability.
This crisis is bigger than us — it’s bigger than one newsroom and any story. That’s why we need to make such a bold statement."
Senior Manager, Programs and Education, Walkley Foundation for Journalism | 30+ years in the media sector as a journalist, editor, lecturer, and training consultant
2moIs there an electronic copy, Lisa? I'd love to read it. My email address is in my 'Contact' info on LinkedIn. Be great to line up a chat when I'm back to Australia next week, too.