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African journalists rally to defend Cheriff Sy amid disinformation threats

African journalists rally to defend Cheriff Sy amid disinformation threats

A disinformation campaign targeting veteran Burkina Faso journalist Cheriff Sy has sparked widespread alarm within the African journalism community. The campaign falsely accuses Sy and another individual of orchestrating an alleged coup attempt on December 22 in Burkina Faso, posing a significant threat to his safety and reputation. Editors and journalists across Africa have vehemently expressed their apprehensions, unanimously attesting to Sy's unwavering commitment to journalistic integrity and his impeccable reputation. Many have rallied to defend Sy, asserting their absolute conviction that he would never be involved in such actions. The gravity of the threat against Sy is heightened by…
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Climate change journalism in South Africa misses the mark by ignoring people’s daily experiences

Climate change journalism in South Africa misses the mark by ignoring people’s daily experiences

SOUTH Africa’s media houses rely too heavily on events like conferences, climate disasters and the release of scientific papers in their reporting on climate change. That’s a problem: it creates the potential for day-to-day issues related to climate change, like ongoing mitigation and adaptation efforts, to go unreported. That’s one of the key findings of a study I recently conducted into how the country’s media cover the climate crisis. ENOCK SITHOLE, Lecturer, University of the Witwatersrand I also identified major shortcomings in overall communication on the climate crisis by key stakeholders in South Africa – policymakers, captains of industry, scientists…
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Journalist imprisonments reach 30-year high

Journalist imprisonments reach 30-year high

THE number of journalists imprisoned worldwide is the highest ever recorded in the 30 years that the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has produced its prison census, the organization said Wednesday. A record 363 journalists were behind bars as of December 1, 2022, a 20% increase over 2021, CPJ’s annual prison census showed. Iran has soared to become the world’s worst jailer of journalists, with 62 imprisoned on December 1, rising from tenth place in 2021, a reflection of authorities’ ruthless crackdown on the women-led uprisings that erupted in September. The regime has imprisoned a record number of female journalists—22 out of…
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Africa’s media is under siege

Africa’s media is under siege

CHURCHILL OTIENO THREE issues stand out for us as we mark this year’s World Press Freedom Day, whose theme is “Journalism under digital siege”. First, many governments in Africa still think they can achieve economic progress and political developments, including democracy, without a free media. But economic principles would hardly be sound without free flow of ideas and information. We must therefore help them see this reality. Free expression facilitates and enables economic growth. Secondly, a lot of value created by the media on our content is exported outside Africa by Big Tech. We must find ways that allow Big…
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Journalism has changed. Education must reflect the reality

Journalism has changed. Education must reflect the reality

FOR more than a century, journalism education prepared young people for the role of full-time professionals employed by sizeable news organisations. But the advertising-based business model that sustained journalism is collapsing because of new technology, and jobs of the old kind are becoming scarce. The educational model, too, must change to accommodate the new realities. Author FRANZ KRÜGER, Adjunct Professor of Journalism and Director of the Wits Radio Academy, University of the Witwatersrand Traditional media – particularly print – are in decline as audiences move online and revenue streams follow them to platform giants like Google and Facebook. As a…
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Saving journalism: views on how to pay for reliable information

Saving journalism: views on how to pay for reliable information

JOURNALISM globally faces a sustainability crisis. It largely stems from declining advertising revenue, loss of revenue to technology giants, control of news media by political actors and individuals with business interests, disinformation and dwindling public trust. Author THEODORA DAME ADJIN-TETTEY, Research Associate, School of Journalism and Madia Studies, Rhodes University, South Africa / Lecturer, Department of Communication Studies, University of Ghana, Rhodes University Twisting the knife in the wound, the financial pressure on media organisations has been worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic. In the US, for example, at least 21 local newspapers merged and about 1,400 newsroom staffers lost their…
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Escalating Sinophobia in SA’s media

Escalating Sinophobia in SA’s media

IN “Seven Centuries of Slander”, an essay in the current issue of The New York Review, Sarah Lipton reviews two significant new books on the history of anti-Semitism. She concludes that they offer the same lesson: “The well of gullibility has to be primed through frequent repetition, especially with the backing of seemingly authoritative sources.” This places a particular responsibility on socially authorised forms of making public meaning, in particular those that, like the media and the academy, present themselves as operating in the public interest.  In South Africa, journalism, like the academy, is frequently animated by a strong sense of its own…
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Official Secrets Act: UK government has a long history of suppressing journalism to hide its misdeeds

Official Secrets Act: UK government has a long history of suppressing journalism to hide its misdeeds

THE UK government recently put out for consultation proposals for toughening the Official Secrets Act, ostensibly to deter foreign spies. PAUL LASHMAR, Reader in Journalism, City, University of London Many lawyers, lawmakers and journalists have argued that laws concerning official data and secrets are in need of updating to fit a world where espionage and leaks are largely conducted through new technology. But a close reading of the new proposals suggests the agenda is as much to deter journalists, whistleblowers and sources from embarrassing government and intelligence agencies. The words “journalist” and “journalism” appear nowhere in the main text, and…
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Press freedom under lockdown across two-thirds of the globe

Press freedom under lockdown across two-thirds of the globe

ED HOLT INDEPENDENT journalism is facing a growing crackdown one year into the COVID-19 pandemic as governments around the world restrict access to information and muzzle critical reporting, media and rights watchdogs have warned. Authoritarian regimes have used existing and new legislation to attack, intimidate, and jail reporters under the guise of acting to protect public health, they say, and fear the situation is unlikely to improve in many states if and when the pandemic ends. “Dictators and authoritarian leaders exploited the cover of COVID to crackdown on independent reporting and criticism. Some, instead of battling the virus, turned their…
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How advertisers defund crisis journalism

How advertisers defund crisis journalism

BEN PARKER HARD news about humanitarian and social issues is being treated as toxic by overzealous ad technology, undermining corporate social responsibility and effectively punishing publishers for reporting on international crises, researchers say. Take the winning of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2020. This was big news for the World Food Programme, but ad technology scanning for gloomy keywords like “famine” and “conflict” meant that big advertisers shied away from it on major media sites: An upbeat NBC article about WFP’s win was boycotted automatically by dozens of advertisers. This is just one example revealed by new research on the hidden rules of…
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