Chair: Mahlatse Mahlase (Editor in Chief of EWN and SANEF's Chairperson)
Speakers: Khadija Patel (Editor in Chief of Mail & Guardian), Carol Mohlala (Director AIP), Jocelyne Muhutu-Remy (Strategic Media Partnerships Manager, Sub-Saharan Africa, FaceBook) and Willie Mponda (Editor in Chief, The Sun and SAEF Chairperson)
Journalists have played a critical, frontline role during the Coronavirus pandemic sharing information, explaining the crisis and correcting false information. Audience figures have soared across Africa and South Africa but simultaneously the financial bedrock of the media has been fundamentally undermined. Advertising budgets have been slashed – up to 70% in some cases. We have seen the closure of an entire magazine division, the cutting of salaries and distress calls from industry stalwarts such as the Mail & Guardian, the Citizen and from the Association of Independent Publishers (AIP) that organises 200 small, independent print publications across the country.
Our panellists will bring to the fore the crisis facing the industry and debate what this means for the future of news media as the lifeblood of democracy.
