CONNECTING THE DOTS: ENVIRONMENTAL CRISIS, CLIMATE CHANGE, ELECTIONS, FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND MEDIA FREEDOM INTRODUCTION E LECTIONS have become the barometer of measurement — providing an understanding into the width, depth, breadth, volume and magnitude of the pressure points of a country’s political and media landscape — particularly on the African continent. Issues bubbling under the surface come gushing to the fore — revealing the extent to which citizens are angered, excited or expectant and most definitely manipulated. It is a time when disinformation dominates, misinformation misrepresents and political parties’ propaganda machines go into overdrive. Influencers find themselves at the centre stage of this polluted information ecosystem poised to peddle puffery for the highest bidder, as they throw in their partisan weight into the already toxic information ecology. “South Africa has witnessed several instances of politically-weaponised disinformation in recent years that leveraged computational propaganda and the strategic use of digital influencers.” (1) AUTHOR: Reyhana Masters As already exposed in the Kenyan elections, the commodification of online influence fuels dis/ misinformation and amplifies existing tensions. (2) Sadly, legacy media are unable to effectively or impactfully navigate through this tainted network, with either the speed, or the efficacy of the online cyber troops, who work alongside paid digital influencers. The only medium that has some chance of breaking through this quagmire is radio, but its efficacy is dependent on how autonomous the STATE OF PRESS FREEDOM IN SOUTHERN AFRICA 2023 14