Impact of Covid 19 on Media Sustainability https://zimbabwe.misa.org The fact that State resources are devoted solely to State-owned media needs further discussion, since the idea of State support for all news media is now being discussed in countries where this would previously have been deprecated. “The debate about the necessity of non-commercial funding of the media comes about as Covid has shaken up our ideas of what’s possible.”3 It should be obvious that State funding of news media done transparently and fairly is better than covert manipulation through preferential placement of advertising and confusion of State media with public media – to the extent of staff at State media being interchangeable with civil servants 4 or resembling “PR departments of the ruling party.”5 and advancing free speech and democracy, good governance, and the free flow of information necessary for an efficient and fairer economy. The assumption has been that news media will always be able to function. The problem with financial fragility for news media is that it aids capture, either by vested interests or the State. As director of Botswana’s only independent investigative journalism unit, and former newspaper editor, Joel Konopo remarks in raising red flags about bias in Botswana’s media, “We live in a world in which journalism and freedom of information run up against an invisible wall consisting of money and conflicting interests.” Much emphasis, it seems to me, has been placed on the legal framework needed for media freedom and not enough on the financial lifeblood of news organisations. News media operates in a complex nexus of money and politics, where the private sector profit imperative has to be balanced against other motives of supporting Interviews with knowledgeable people in the region confirm that though the region has, in contrast to the immediate post-colonial period, a range of news outlets, the private independent news media was not exactly flourishing preCovid-19. For example, John Mukela of the Makanday Centre for Investigative Journalism notes that in Zambia “even before Covid, a lot of stress was being felt.” He says the government wanted to merge the loss-making Times of Zambia with the Zambia Daily Mail because the Times of Zambia and layoffs were seen at privately owned newspapers such as The Mast.6 Most of these private newspapers, instead of having people on staff, they are using correspondents or stringers, who report for them but are not on the staff payroll. They are parttime and paid depending on what they produce. I think that is a trend that is increasing.7 The Namibian Media Trust director Zoe Titus notes that the major challenge pre-Covid was the dominance of State media, including the national broadcaster, which has a complete monopoly on the broadcasting sector in the country and the State print media. A cabinet directive, which she says no one refers to openly effectively avows that that “state-owned media would get preferential treatment in terms of the placement of advertising from government institutions.” This has had a dramatic impact 3. Guy Berger, Interview with Guy Berger, director for Freedom of Expression and Media Development, Unesco, September 23, 2020. 4. Joel Konopo, Botswana INK media, September 18, 2020. 5. Mukela John, Managing partner, Makanday Centre for Investigative Journalism, September 23, 2020. 6. Mukela John. 7. Mukela John. 6