S2 #9: #Fishrot – How it all started.

Gregory Gondwe is director of the Platform for Investigative Journalism (PIJ), and has already paid a price for exposing corruption. In this podcast, FreeSpeak host Gwen Lister, digs deep with Gondwe into the scourge of corruption, the state of journalism, the broader political landscape in Malawi and the future of democracy.

Our #FreeSpeak host Gwen Lister connects via Zoom with JJ Omojuwa, Chief Strategist at Alpha Reach to discuss the controversial topic of social media influencers and what this may mean for journalism and access to information, especially in the African context. Omojuwa is a Nigerian blogger author, public speaker, political commentator and a verified social media expert with over a million followers on Twitter.

Building on more than a century of its history, radio remains one of the most trusted and widely used media. #FreeSpeak host Gwen Lister unpacks the importance of radio with Norah Appolus, a seasoned journalist with more than 40 years' experience in the broadcasting industry, and shining light in the Namibian broadcasting landscape David Bishop, Head of news at Future Media.

Today we take you back to what was #FreeSpeak’s first vodcast on the #Fishrot scandal. Our host Gwen Lister spoke with Shinovene Immanuel, head of the investigative desk at The Namibian newspaper and Helgi Seljan, investigative reporter of Icelandic National Broadcasting Corporation just as the scandal was beginning to erupt in 2019.

Do young people trust the media? And why do Africans seem to care less about freedoms now than they did a decade ago? Youthful Ndapwa Alweendo, freelance writer and editor, and Omar van Reneen, a civil rights activist & co-founder of Equal Namibia, explore concerns of declining levels of trust in the media with our #FreeSpeak host Gwen Lister.

On November 2 we join the rest of the world to commemorate the International Day to End Impunity for Crimes Against Journalists (IDEI) - an important day for press freedom. More specifically to focus on the safety of journalists, who need an enabling environment – and not a climate of fear – in order to do their jobs to the best of their ability. Mozambique is one of the countries in which attacks on journalists has become commonplace. #LetsTakeAMoment to unpack this issue with #FreeSpeak host Gwen Lister and Editor of Mozambique’s leading weekly newspaper, Fernando Goncalves.

Great journalism needs good journalists. Few would argue with this statement. The media world is currently preoccupied with the challenge of sustaining good journalism and the Global Forum for Media Development (GFMD) is no exception. GFMD is an international network of journalism support and media development organisations intent on securing a sustainable future for journalism as a public good. For this to be realised, training excellence, newsroom diversity and the strong presence of women in the sector, are a given. #FreeSpeak host Gwen Lister discusses this and more with the director of the Namibia Media Trust and first African chairperson of the GFMD, Zoé Titus.

Access to information (ATI) is a topical issue. We’ve just celebrated the International Day for Universal Access to Information, and there’s finally an ATI Bill before Parliament years after the Action Namibia Coalition and others started work on the project with the Ministry of Information and Communication Technology (MICT) in 2016. So, there’s light at the end of the tunnel as it is set to become law. The Covid pandemic however has given even more impetus to the necessity of such access on the part of both citizens and journalists alike, given the predominance of disinformation around Covid measures in general and vaccines in particular. #FreeSpeak host Gwen Lister chats with Frederico Links, the chairperson of the Coalition, about the urgency of an ATI law in the prevailing circumstances.

#FreeSpeak host Gwen Lister talks to Joseph Ailonga (Jossy Joss) Broadcast Manager at The Namibian and Tangeni Amupadhi Editor of The Namibian newspaper, about the newspaper’s exciting initiative to branch out into radio. The Namibian is about to launch its new venture, Desert Radio, as part of its multimedia offering. They reflect on the media’s struggle for sustainability in a time when audiences have been captured by the digital space, on pushing a multimedia newsroom and, most importantly, on how to sustain good journalism.

In part 1 of this #FreeSpeak podcast we looked at the issue of artificial intelligence and its impact on journalism, and in a conversation with Mattia Peretti, of the LSE’s Polis project JournalismAI, we focused on the rollout of AI in newsrooms, and what this concept really means. We stopped short of looking at practical ways in which media owners and managers are currently exploring the potential of this tool in enabling the work of journalists. So, in this episode of the two-part podcast our #FreeSpeak host, Gwen Lister, chats to Styli Charalambous, who’s been an innovator since he co-founded the Daily Maverick in South Africa in 2009.