In South Africa, Daily Maverick founder calls for support for verified journalism
In South Africa, Branko Brkic, the founder and former editor-in-chief of Daily Maverick, called on readers ahead of World News Day to verify the origin of information and support media outlets that work with facts. World News Day will be observed on September 28, 2026. According to data cited in his column, more than 1,000 newsrooms from over 100 countries will join the initiative that day.
Brkic called reliable information one of the basic components of modern society. According to him, journalistic work involves finding documents and witnesses, rechecking claims, protecting sources, questioning powerful people, and publicly correcting mistakes.
The experience of Yugoslavia and South Africa
The author linked his attitude toward journalism to his experience of living in Yugoslavia in the mid-1980s. According to Brkic, society then gradually lost a shared understanding of facts, values, and events. He noted that hundreds of thousands of people later died and millions were displaced.
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Decades later, Brkic said he was among journalists in South Africa who studied documents related to the State Capture phenomenon. The author argues that this work made it impossible to deny the looting and became one of the factors in restoring hope and optimism in the country.
World News Day principles
In his column, Brkic identified four principles: know the facts, understand what matters, choose reliable journalism, and defend the right to know. In his view, individual data do not explain an event without context: journalism must show why something happened, who benefited, who paid for it, and what the further consequences may be.
The author also called for attention to media outlets that explain the origin of information, separate news from opinion, acknowledge uncertainty, and correct mistakes. He noted that World News Day falls on the same date as UNESCO's International Day for Universal Access to Information.
