Twenty years after the Windhoek Declaration on press freedom

Citizens take up <strong>the</strong> pen, <strong>the</strong> cell – and
<strong>the</strong> microphone
By Kwanele Butana
Kwanele Butana is a senior reporter
at <strong>the</strong> Cape Times, and former Citizen
Journalism Editor at Grocott’s Mail,
Grahamstown, South Africa.
108 | Media in Africa - 2011
When Grocott’s Mail secured funding
from <strong>the</strong> Knight Foundation to
start a project aimed at converting
ordinary citizens into journalists in
<strong>the</strong> place where I was born and bred,
I thought to myself: “One should be
<strong>the</strong> guinea pig in this experiment
which promises unpredictable outcomes.”
The result was my appointment in
April 2010 as Citizen Journalism
Editor at <strong>the</strong> paper. I began a
journey to where I had never dreamt
of being, by taking part in recruiting
and training Citizen Journalists
(CJs).
In addition to <strong>the</strong> ever-effective
word of mouth, our recruitment
policy included publishing adverts
in Grocott’s, as well as sticking up
notices in strategic areas around
Grahamstown inviting applications.
Our application forms simply asked
potential trainees to motivate as to
what good use <strong>the</strong>y would put <strong>the</strong>
journalistic skills to be gained from
our course. There are no minimum
academic requirements for being a
CJ, save for some level of literacy
as reporting entails reading and
writing.
Each course lasted for six weeks
and <strong>the</strong> syllabus covered basic
news reporting skills, computer
skills, internet research, media law
and ethics, radio production and
photography. While we have trained
over 100 citizens so far, only 65 CJs
have emerged on <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r side. To
‘qualify’ as CJ, a citizen should get
at least one story published.
The graduates are issued with CJ
certificates and identity cards, which
allow <strong>the</strong>m unrestricted access to
<strong>the</strong> fully equipped CJ Newsroom of
well-maintained computers with
internet. The cards can also be used
as press cards.
Our CJ Newsroom, possibly <strong>the</strong> first
one in Africa, also has memory card
readers and data cables for every
type of cellphone. These are often
used to upload videos and photos
taken by CJs using <strong>the</strong>ir cell phones.
The CJ articles, photos and videos
are edited and published online in a
specific section of <strong>the</strong> newspaper’s
website. Depending on <strong>the</strong>ir news
values, stronger articles and photos
are also published in print, in which
case <strong>the</strong> CJs are paid freelance rates.
Our ethos is that CJs are <strong>the</strong> eyes
and ears of <strong>the</strong> community as well
as defenders of democracy. We
inspire <strong>the</strong>m to interrogate issues
in <strong>the</strong>ir immediate communities so
as to enable <strong>the</strong>m to connect <strong>the</strong>ir
fellow citizens to <strong>the</strong> levers of local
political power.
“The result is that
good stories now
play on three media
platforms: online,
print and radio.”