Branislav “Branko” Brkic’s Daily Maverick, Sam Sole’s amaBhungane, Adriaan Basson’s News24 and their ilk must come clean. Reveal your funders and supporters – even if it includes the CIA. The public has a right to know. Brkic, don’t mislead the public to suggest you need donations.
According to well-placed sources, journalists at the Daily Maverick receive bounteous dollars in stipends above their salaries. These journalists are almost exclusively from “the establishment”, and privileged.
The South African mediascape has been captured by a coalition of right-wing and neo-liberal forces, with key online publications like News24, amaBhungane and Daily Maverick all firmly under neo-liberal control, according to a report by Common Dreams.
In an insightful article, Phillip Dexter and Roscoe Palm, co-founders of @PaisSocialism – the Pan-African Institute for Socialism – reported that the South African mediascape has been captured by a coalition of right-wing and neo-liberal forces, with key online publications such as News24, amaBhungane and Daily Maverick all firmly under neo-liberal control.
“A number of publications have a stream of cash from a web of funds that are so wedded, directly or indirectly, to the US intelligence network that they have become an extension of the CIA.
“There are also all forms of influence such as off-the-record briefings and collaborations with USAID or National Endowment for Democracy-funded projects that do not take the form of direct cash transfers. There are also the constant engagements with a network of US-funded NGOs and research centres,” says the article.“
Independent Media has reported that the Sekunjalo Group would never succumb to calls for it to let go of Independent Media after revelations of pressure from the “powerful elite” for the group to give up the media house.
Speaking during an interview with the international digital platform, “Insight Factor”, owned by Thabo Makwakwa and Sizwe Skhosana, Sekunjalo and Independent Media chairman, Dr Iqbal Survé, said those who had called for him to give up the media house, had promised his detractors would leave him alone and his other businesses could continue if he did so.
“Of course, I cannot do that because we have fought for our freedom in this country and we have fought for media freedom and we have fought to have all voices heard,” Survé said.
The majority of the country’s media fraternity has seemingly become a platform for propaganda and smear campaigns, mechanised to discredit and tarnish the reputation of prominent black individuals, many of whom have a different narrative to that collectively pushed by these publishing platforms.
The last decade has seen media in the country go through an unprecedented transformation where media now has the power to drive change and usher in the new dawn through daily news publications that aim to educate and inform. Critical to understanding the role of media in our democracy, is the need to investigate and comprehend whose interests are being served when certain narratives about certain leaders are pushed.
However, a reversal of the struggle is unfolding and the media is playing a key role again. Media in South Africa has become a threat to democracy, continuing as it does, to serve the interests of certain individuals.
In a brief interview, Newzroom Afrika’s Duduzile Ramela, Dexterth said: “If one looks at the publishing records of these journals and newspapers, they fundamentally focus on two things. One is on bringing down the ANC as a government and ensuring that it gets below 50% in the next elections, and secondly, attacking socialist and left formations.
“We’ve seen the brutal attacks on Numsa, for example, trying to overthrow the current leadership of the trade union. And I think all of these organisations have a history of meddling in the politics of other organisations.
“If one looks at their funding, although they are fronts to that funding, one should trace back as to where the funding comes from. It’s usually things like the ‘Soros Foundation’ and the US State Department through the National Endowment for Democracy and so on. This is nothing new, by the way, I mean the US has been meddling in African politics for decades.”
Dexter said they would soon be releasing the data that shows where the funding comes from and how it’s utilised.