Channel dug own grave

THE CLOSURE of the television news channel Afro Worldview, better known by its former appellation ANN7, is a sad occurrence for the South African journalist fraternity.

Apart from being an alternative – albeit controversial – voice, Afro Worldview’s shutdown has left more than 300 employees without a source of income.

Opportunities in the traditional media sphere are increasingly becoming difficult to come by. These are hard times for journalists, and the industry is shedding jobs in line with the dismal state of our economy.

Afro Worldview’s collapse comes hard on the heels of the station’s stablemate, The New Age newspaper, founded in December 2010 and rebranded as AfroVoice in April this year. It suddenly ceased publication on June 29. Afro Worldview and AfroVoice were always going to face a shaky, tenuous future.

They were founded by the Guptas on a false premise and questionable business model, and made little attempt at embracing the conventional tenets of true, impartial journalism.

An empire built on quicksand, and whose raison d’être had little connection to the noble profession of proper journalism, has come to an end.

The company was essentially launched to sing the praises of the Guptas and to turn a blind eye to state capture and rapacious looting.

It lent its weight to one faction of the ANC. Nowhere was this clearer than in the period leading to the ANC’s 54th conference at Nasrec.

The New Age and ANN7 launched aggressive propaganda campaigns to discredit then president Jacob Zuma’s perceived opponents, using questionable, incomplete or fabricated “evidence”. ANN7 relied on a coterie of discredited “analysts” to push forward their side’s point of view.

So brazen was the channel at twisting facts to suit its own agenda that the ANC spokesperson at the time, Zizi Kodwa, once reflected: “If anybody takes them as a news channel, you must think twice. No one must give them credibility, and they don’t deserve a response from the ANC.”

MultiChoice said its decision to pull the plug on the news channel was sparked by concerns over the reputational damage it was causing the MultiChoice brand.

Afro Worldview and AfroVoice are a salutary lesson to journalism that we must tell it as it is, without fear or favour.