Journalism deserves a booster injection

I WRITE out of concern about the woeful lack of credibility and quality journalism in South Africa. As a direct consequence, our constitutional democracy is in distress and barely escaped from being a foster child of an incestuous relationship.

The evidence arising from the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture serves as a template for this letter.

It is also evident, if the latest experience of journalists being killed in Gaza is a live example, that around the world independent public interest media is under threat. Traditional business models, which had been eroding for a decade or more, are beginning to collapse, particularly as sources of advertising revenue shrink and move online.

These problems, which are most acute in low- and middle-income countries, were only exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. South Africa is one such country.

Permit me to break it down further. An independent media has been acknowledged for generations in South Africa as a fundamental pillar for the effective functioning of our democratic society and which is under a renewed existential threat.

Thanks to courageous journalists now put out to pasture due to the failed commercial model being pursued, South Africa was able to unite in the fight against apartheid.

My case is that, like in New Zealand, we need to establish a Public Interest Journalism Fund which enables news outlets through subsidies to train and employ journalists.

There is an International Fund for Public Interest Media in existence which provides guidance and funding assistance which I understand should be approached.

South African journalism deserves a booster injection. Our constitutional democracy will benefit from this.

SABER AHMED

JAZBHAY Newlands West

the targets from our bodies we are not wounds begging for attention we are women who desire the luxury that safety has become seeking justice for our sisters who turned into statistics.

EKTA SOMERA

Umkomaas