Media owners must be crusaders for editorial independence

It is a huge honour for me to address all of you. I would like to thank Mr Dayo Aiyetan, the executive director of the International Centre for Investigative Reporting, for this opportunity.

Congratulations on this huge milestone — your organisation’s 10th anniversary. I now see why it is fitting that your theme deals with the issue of “sustainability imperatives for African media”.

In my country, and I am sure it is the same here in Nigeria, there is so much that is going wrong at the moment.

If you go to our news platforms now, I can assure you there will be a story about a politician who is being exposed for being corrupt. I am sure that there is a new scandal that we are reporting about as I speak. You will read a lot about destruction and despair after the floods that have destroyed Durban, one of the most beautiful cities in the world. The floods have killed hundreds of people and families have been left without their homes.

Just the other day we were carrying stories about how Johannesburg is one of the murder capitals of the world, after the release of the crime stats by our police authorities. These are stories that you will find on our platforms.

While these cannot be ignored, we have challenged our journalists and editors to also make a massive effort to find stories of hope. Believe me, these are difficult to find, but they are there and we need to tell these. We need to tell the rest of the world that while there are lots of negative issues and destruction in South Africa and Africa as a whole, there are huge pockets of excellence and opportunities in this continent.

We have to give hope to the future generation, that while we have messed up there is still a future for them and the generations that will come after them. That is why we want to be a platform of hope.

For us to be competent in what we do, we must be clear about the business of our business. Most of us here are news business owners. News is our business, therefore we must be competent in how we generate and deliver news to our audiences. There are two things that, in my humble opinion, will help us deliver a competent news product. The first and most important one is editorial independence; and the second is a commitment to investing in compelling, exclusive and relevant news content.

As media business owners, we must take our rightful place as crusaders for media freedom and editorial independence. Our journalists need to hear us at every opportunity assuring them that we will not interfere with their independence.

The sustainability of the media is strongly linked to its capacity to operate effectively under sound political, legal and economic conditions. Politicians must know that as media business owners there is a line that we are not prepared to cross — we will not interfere with our editorial [operations].

This will give our news products integrity. Our audiences will start trusting our news as competent, worth consuming and worth paying for.

I’m a great believer in the independence of media. It is sacrosanct and must never be interfered with. The Economist of May 3 2022 does not paint an impressive picture of media freedom. It reports that:

Globally, press freedom is in retreat. Around 85% of people live in countries where it has declined over the past five years, according to analysis by Unesco of data on freedom of expression from the Varieties of Democracy (vdem) Institute. Since the Russian army invaded Ukraine in February, more than 20 journalists have been killed.The sharpest decline in media freedom in the past decade has come from several of the most populous countries. In 2021, 488 journalists were behind bars, according to Reporters Without Borders, a non-profit group. Many more were subject to intimidation. We cannot allow this type of mistreatment.

Colleagues, we need to be vigilant and not allow the African media to be silenced, skewed, or captured. As African media proprietors we must raise our voices and must always stand on the side of media freedom. Media freedom and editorial independence are critical imperatives for sustainability.

We need strong, ethical and decisive leadership in our media businesses. Our leaders — across the spectrum — are failing us dismally. This cannot happen in our industry. We therefore need to develop a culture of excellent delivery to improve the lives of our people. To build strong, viable countries, both corporate and political leadership needs to stand up and be counted.

Let me leave you with these words: As we all do investigative reporting and the associated work, let us also be that platform of hope. Ensure that you have a strong culture of achievement, of excellence and of leadership.

We need to be vigilant and not allow the African media to be silenced, skewed, or captured