This week I had a chance to sit down with the legendary South African editor and innovator in journalism, Branko Brkic, the founder of The Daily Maverick, which is a host newsroom for our Report for the World program.
To mark World News Day tomorrow and to sound the alarm on the crisis in journalism that is unfolding not just here in the United States but in every corner of the globe he is launching a new initiative called “Choose Truth.”
“Perhaps the biggest issue that all of us right now are concerned about is the frontal attack on truth and the meaning of truth,” said Branko. “And this is basically the beginning of a much longer campaign whose goal is to educate people and readers all over the world and to actually give a certain level of encouragement to our brothers and sisters all over the world who, right now, mostly feel as a part of the profession under attack,” he added.
Indeed, as he shared with some poignant insights in the tone of a boxer who has gone the distance across four decades in the ring of journalism, Branko is stepping down from the helm of the Maverick so that he can put all of his considerable energy and creativity into this campaign. He’s dedicating himself to draw attention to a fact we have been sharing in this newsletter for quite a few years now: It is not just journalism that is under attack, but truth itself.
Branko and I are both 40-year veterans of journalism, both founders who have recently decided to step aside from leadership roles and both watching our hair turn gray as we stare out across the battle lines of the good fight that lies ahead to save journalism and protect the idea of truth.
So The GroundTruth Project is proud to be one of the 800 organizations signing on to support the goals of ‘Choose Truth’ and I am looking forward to helping in any way I can with this effort.
GroundTruth and Choose Truth are not just mission-aligned, they quite literally rhyme. Not only in terms of the repetition of sound, but in that more profound sense of a rhyme that can exist between “hope and history,” to borrow an oft-quoted phrase from the Irish poet Seamus Heaney.
The attack on truth is certainly not new. I have tried to stress that fact through public speaking in recent years and through the course I have taught for the last three years at Boston College, titled “Truth: A Short History.”
The admittedly lame attempt at academic humor in my course title is that, obviously, there is no short history of truth. Since the beginning of time, it has been a human endeavor to try to define the meaning of truth and to protect it against those who seek to defile it. From Aristotle in ancient Greece, through the writing of the Hebrew Bible of the teachings of Judaism and the New Testament and the parables of Jesus all the way through to the Enlightenment and on to modern thinkers like Jean Paul Sartre and George Orwell, humans have endeavored to defend truth and to shore up its meaning when it is under attack. These days we are definitely in for one hell of a fight!
And so Branko is issuing a call to arms for all of us who care about the truth, summoning us to the struggle this way in his open letter written with the Nobel laureate and journalist Maria Ressa:
“Even as journalism everywhere is struggling to maintain its standing and relevance, every day we get to feel the joy of shared truth with our communities. Lives are saved, democracies protected and ordinary people’s existence improved. We must never lose sight of these ideals — and we must fight for them.”
We hope you will mark World News Day by taking the time to read this important letter in its entirety from Branko Brkic and Maria Ressa and you can find it here along with some video clips from my interview with Branko.
Joy of shared truth, sacred bond and democracies’ self-evident values
Dear reader, citizen, fellow human,
2024 A.D. is testing our modern societies in ways we once hoped would never be repeated.
Autocratic regimes and aspiring dictators around the world have thrown down a gauntlet to freedoms across borders, races and religions. Modern conflicts span the entire globe and are fought in an information expanse that is overwhelming in its reach and power. New technologies, and the platforms they enable, are battlefields on which our future is being decided – often without our permission and against our will.
In this maelstrom, it is journalism – fact-based, evidence-based, credible news media – that has a lifelong duty to defend the self-evident values our civilisation was built on. Worldwide, it is the journalists who live their responsibility to honour this sacred bond with our audiences and our communities.
In return, we feel the joy of shared truth – with you.
These special moments – when news stories save lives, improve understanding among people and guide us through rough times – are often lost in the avalanche of disinformation; destroying trust, the bedrock of our ability to live together.
Even the very meaning of Truth is under assault.
Journalism everywhere is struggling to maintain its standing and relevance to our own communities, and for an alarming number of our news organisations, daily existence equals a struggle for survival.
These are indeed extraordinary times – worrying to the core to every soul who cares about people, civilisation and democracy that made it all possible.
And yet, these troubled days are also exciting and scintillating at the same time.
In moments when systems are crumbling and foundational truths are under pressure, we, the news media of the world, must show that we’re made of sterner stuff; the stuff that can withstand disinformation campaigns, sustained attacks, and a flood of falsehoods.
Our business models have crumbled under the pressure of Big Tech. Truth itself is being relativised daily; what once was a common understanding of material reality, is today often supplanted by fact-free interpretation.
In many instances, the very form of the word Truth carries the meaning of Lie.
These are not random, accidental attacks. These are all part of the crusade against our system of values – our basic understanding of what is good and bad. Without our system of values, if we can’t distinguish right from wrong, we have no civilisation either.
Come 28 September – World News Day – news media organisations from around the world will join hands to reassure you of our undying commitment to News, Facts, Accountability, Public Service, Humanity, Scrutiny, Independence, Ethics & Community.
These words have deep meaning. They matter to us.
There’s only one choice ahead of us: We, the news media, will continue to fulfil our sacred duty. The news we report will remain based in fact. We will defend Truth.
And we want to further assure you, dear reader, that it is our every intention to keep it that way. We will not tire, and we will not give up. The battle for Truth is the battle for our common future.
And to our colleagues everywhere in this troubled stretch of history: Do not despair. You are not alone. Our mission ties us all together.
The noise and violence will eventually subside, and the discourse based on truth and decency will return. It may not happen soon, but it will happen eventually.
For now, we fight. Every moment of every hour of every day.
This 2024 World News Day, let us ensure we never forget why we’re here in the first place – and help to keep the joy of shared truth with our readers, our true North.
The letter below was written by Branko Brkic, Editor in Chief, Daily Maverick; Creator of Choose Truth Campaign, South Africa and Maria Ressa, Nobel Peace Prize Laureate; CEO of Rappler.com, The Philippines
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Charles Sennott interviewed Branko Brkic to learn more about World News Day and his “Choose Truth campaign.”
What is the ‘Choose Truth’ Campaign?
What is the goal of World News Day?
