The Media20 Summit Amplifies Global Media Issues
The Media20 Summit has taken advantage of the G20 Presidency of South Africa, which is providing a great opportunity to drive key initiatives across various sectors, to lobby world leaders to acknowledge critical media freedom, sustainability and safety of journalists.
Cas Coovadia, B20 Sherpa, addressed delegates, journalists, and changemakers attending the launch of the M20 Summit in Johannesburg on Sunday, 31 August 2025. He said the Summit was a rare space where media would sit at the heart of global progress. It was a chance to forge partnerships, not just between governments and journalists, but between business and truth. Between profit and principle.
“When journalists are empowered, when stories are told with integrity, and when Africa speaks for itself, the world listens.”
He said that for too long, Africa’s narrative had been distorted by external lenses. “The story of Africa,” he declared, “has too often been written by others, framed through deficit, disaster and dependency.”
He said the continent was rising, not waiting. And its ascent demanded empowered newsrooms free to investigate, bold enough to question, and imaginative enough to reframe the African narrative.
He said South Africa’s reckoning with state capture had not begun in Parliament, but in the newsroom. Journalists had followed the paper trails, decoded the emails, and exposed the rot. Their work led to commissions, accountability, and the first steps of national healing. “That is not just journalism,” Cas said. “That is nation-building.”
Coovadia, a lifelong advocate for truth, accountability, and inclusive growth, drew parallels to Brazil’s Operation Car Wash, saying investigative reporting toppled giants and reshaped politics. These stories, he insisted, were not anomalies; they were proof that the media, when free and capable, was a pillar of democracy.
He turned the lens on business, saying the business world cannot speak of inclusive growth while ignoring the role of the media in holding it accountable.
He said the investing principle that prioritises environmental issues, social issues, and corporate governance (ESG principles) would mean nothing if the institutions that ensured transparency were left to wither. Newsrooms needed investment, not just to survive, but to thrive. To train reporters, protect whistleblowers, and embrace digital security.
Dr Kirston Greenop, Head of Corporate Citizenship at Standard Bank Group, said there was no secret that the world of media was facing many existential threats, and the work of truth-telling was becoming highly contested and increasingly challenging.
She said that this year’s M20 Summit was aimed at positioning media integrity and sustainable journalism as critical components of the G20 agenda while reflecting on global conversations about interconnected challenges like sovereign debt and climate change, among others.
This is why Standard Bank welcomed the opportunity to play a small part in ensuring that this M20 Summit took place successfully.
Dr Greenop said that as Africa’s largest bank by assets, Standard Bank Group is actively involved in ensuring the success of the G20 Presidency.
“We are a Lead Sponsor in B20 South Africa, the business dialogue platform that supports the G20,” he said.
Although there was no silver bullet to solving the challenges the media faced globally, it was gatherings like the M20 Summit that reaffirmed the view that the media does not stand in isolation in working to address the challenges. After all, it was the global order that followed the end of WW2, built on the understanding that one hand washes the other, that showed that there was greater strength in ‘standing in unison’.
Welcoming guests to a banquet ahead of the M20 Summit, Heather Robertson, SANEF Gauteng co-convenor, described ethical journalists as an endangered species in an era of digital disinformation.
She explained that SANEF was formed in 1996 to unite media professionals committed to ethical journalism and media freedom. She highlighted the threats journalists face globally, including violence and job insecurity due to the collapse of traditional advertising models disrupted by digital platforms.
SANEF has proposed a Journalism Fund (JFSA) seeking R100 million to support public interest journalism, she said, also calling on business leaders to support media viability through advertising, corporate subscriptions, and corporate social investment. Quoting a recent research by Trialogue24, she said it found that out of R12.7 billion of Corporate Social Investment only 1% of it in South Africa currently goes toward media freedom initiatives to build a sustainable information ecosystem in the country’s Bill of Rights.
The M20 Summit will produce the Johannesburg M20 Declaration, urging G20 leaders to address the information integrity crisis. The speech encourages business support for media literacy programs to help citizens distinguish between real news and misinformation.
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