MAKHUDU SEFARA | Conscious corporates must support African editors 

The African Editors Forum (Taef) did an important reset in Nairobi, Kenya, last week when editors, media trainers and activists converged for the African Editors Congress.

The challenges facing journalists and editors are many and varied — and so are those facing Taef itself. Africa, sadly, has many media freedom challenges. The onset of misinformation and deepfakes enabled by AI, the loss of revenue due to the impact of Big Tech, abusive litigation by those seeking to suppress investigative journalism and violence against media practitioners are realities.

At another level, how the African story is told and its impact on sustaining negative stereotypes of the so-called continent of death, disease and destruction became an important area of discussion.

Business Day deputy editor Kabelo Khumalo gave us a grim reminder this week of how even ratings agencies do a sloppy job that, if not challenged, perpetuates stereotypes that impede growth on the continent. In its February 19 report on 27 of the 54 sovereign states in Africa, S&P Global Ratings:

• included Burundi but labelled it Uganda;
• kept Sudan and South Sudan as one country; and
• referred to the Republic of the Congo as Congo Brazzaville.

This is in spite of the fact that S&P has been rating these countries for almost 30 years. There’s no prize for guessing what it has been saying about countries it couldn’t even label correctly. Imagine confusing Sweden for Switzerland, and Europe glibly noting the inaccuracy.

Where Africa dishonours its children, the media must point it out, just as we should when Africa’s progress is held back by the sloppiness of others like S&P. In the end, fairness must prevail

There’s much to sneer and cringe at, even after S&P corrected its report on Tuesday, but Africans must now move beyond complaining. That’s the same message Rev Al Sharpton had for mourners at Jesse Jackson’s memorial on Friday: if those maligned by the bully that is Donald Trump learnt anything from Jackson, they’d stop complaining and organise themselves to ensure they influence the next elections.

The same thing must happen here in Africa. The B20 task force on finance and infrastructure, chaired by Sim Tshabalala of Standard Bank, said African governments pay up to 500% more for capital market loans than developed nations. It said there is “structural mispricing” caused by “outdated” narratives that lead to systemic overestimation of African risk.

As a result, nine in 10 projects “fail to reach financial close” because of the overestimation of costs and perceived risks. The consequences are misery and endemic poverty — as well as Africans spending longer than necessary when travelling because infrastructure is not in place.

Aware of this, the African editors gathered in Nairobi agreed that a lot more consciousness about not only the carelessness of the likes of S&P but also of how they tell their own stories is required.

Trite though it is that disease, death and destruction still haunt Africa, the truth is that the continent is much more than its afflictions. The systemic challenges and the cost of capital notwithstanding, Africa is still rising.

Where Africa dishonours its children, the media must point it out, just as we should when Africa’s progress is held back by the sloppiness of others like S&P. In the end, fairness must prevail.

The editors meeting in Nairobi said South Africa’s pathfinding process of holding Big Tech accountable for fair use and fair compensation through the Competition Commission is an important lesson to build on for the continent.

The re-elected Taef leadership of Churchill Otieno as president and Sbu Ngalwa as secretary-general — and others — must approach and lobby the AU to begin a process of holding Big Tech accountable for its negative impact on African newsrooms.

The Motsepes and Dangotes of Africa must fund Taef for its fight for a fairer, open space in which they operate

The Motsepes and Dangotes of Africa must fund Taef for its fight for a fairer, open environment in which their companies operate. Given the many challenges faced and accelerated by Big Tech on the continent, Taef must be supported.

This is why it was encouraging to see Dr Joshua Oigara, the CEO of Stanbic Bank Kenya, who is also the regional head of Standard Bank, not merely talking about linking editorial integrity to the economic survival of media and capital flows in Africa but also sponsoring the congress. This is what Africa needs now more than ever: business leaders who not only say the right things but use their financial muscle to support worthy causes like Taef and media houses that operate under tremendous pressures.

Ahead of the South African G20 presidency, Nobel laureate Joseph Stiglitz, Jeffrey Sachs and other prominent professors issued a landmark warning that information integrity is not just a “vital public good” facing “an existential threat”, but that this is happening as the media landscape is shrinking, creating a “perfect storm for authoritarianism”.

This isn’t a dig at someone like Trump or African despots but is about a general environment being created that suffocates democracy across the board. The world — led by corporates — must help defend the mediascape.

For Taef to be strong, it needs regional editors’ societies for East, West, North and Southern Africa, which in turn need strong newsrooms in the various countries. Our media ecosystem, including newsrooms like that of the Sunday Times, needs support from corporates and legislators. Our democracy needs stronger newsrooms.

While many in Taef seek to emulate what the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) has done, those of us in Sanef know the situation is far from ideal. But the Taef congress has unleashed a lot of hope that African media outlets will, in line with the Taef congress theme, start “reclaiming value, rebuilding trust and redefining sustainability”. That’s our lodestar.

If indeed news and information are societal goods, may Africa’s corporate leaders step up and put their shoulders to the wheel in this important task of saving the continent’s newsrooms so they can tell Africa’s story as it ought to be told. The elixir for our rebirth isn’t possible without conscious corporates.