Independent and diverse journalism is important to maintain quality journalism in South Africa

I believe that the principle of virtue as captured by the Greek word arête, resonates with the state of modern-day journalism in South Africa. I recently addressed media professionals and business leaders at the annual South African Editor’s Forum Gala Dinner, meant to highlight the importance of supporting media freedom. I spoke about arête, a term that was used by the historical figure and philosopher Socrates. He based his thoughts on this idea of virtue. Socrates inspired people to find their arête and provided guidance by asking the right questions. And as you know, Socrates was executed because of his ideas. According to the great philosopher, arete is not only embodied by human beings, but everything else around us. The arete or virtue of the knife is to be sharp. The arete of the apple tree is to produce ripe fruits.

I used the World Press Freedom Index map, compiled by the global organisation: REPORTERS WITHOUT BORDERS

Countries where the media does its work properly are marked in white and yellow. You can clearly see that there is a correlation between economic wealth and media freedom, except in South Africa and Namibia. It means that South African Media has arete. Apparently, some other parts of the team have not. As an entrepreneur, I appreciate that the country’s media remains independent which means paying a high price at times. I am also proud to be part of a company like Menar, that supports the efforts of good journalism.

Menar recently had the honour of hosting the 5th annual Mining Journalism Training programme for the fifth year since its inception. More than 100 people have graduated from the programme within the past five years. This is one of the ways in which we show our support for media freedom.

I hope that through our support the media in South Africa can maintain its independent voice without having to turn to foreign interest groups and lobby groups. Our aim is to support independent and diverse journalism, to prevent brown envelope or paid journalism from ruining South Africa’s media landscape.