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The South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) is launching the fourth round of its Media Relief Fund – started to assist journalists who have lost their jobs and/or their income as a direct result of the Covid-19 national disaster declared in March 2020.
Journalists who previously benefitted from the fund but whose’ circumstances have not changed or have since worsened can also apply and will be eligible in this latest round.
Affected journalists are encouraged to submit their applications with all relevant and supporting documentation from today to be considered by the fund.
Working in conjunction with the Social Justice Initiative (SJI), we wish to report that in our first and 2nd rounds; we received 700 applications and approved 249 journalists for payments.
The South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) strongly condemns the unlawful and intimidatory acts of students - aligned to the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) - against journalists. The students harassed and prevented eNCA journalists from covering the university protests in Johannesburg yesterday.
The South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) condemns the callous shooting of female Student Journalists from the University of Witwatersrand (Wits) by members of the South African Police Service while they were recording the student protests over the financial exclusion of some students.
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The South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) is deeply concerned that a News24 journalist has been allegedly subject to illegal surveillance and interception from the Crime Intelligence (CI) division which is a worrying trend, internationally, of targeting journalists to curtail factual and honest news coverage.
News24 informed SANEF that their lawyer had sent a letter to the acting head of the CI Lieutenant-General Yolisa Mokgabudi, demanding that “those within Crime Intelligence participating in these activities, immediately be ordered to cease all further unlawful interception of News24 journalists’ communication, their surveillance and/or general intimidation”.
According to News24 its investigative journalist Jeff Wicks has allegedly been “followed and his communications” allegedly intercepted due to his coverage of the “internal turf” struggles inside the CI. They allege that other journalists may also be under surveillance.