Twenty years after the Windhoek Declaration on press freedom

While CJs are encouraged to monitor
<strong>the</strong>ir neighbourhoods regularly, we
also run campaigns where CJs are
assigned to write stories focusing
on a specific issue or <strong>the</strong>me. We’ve
run campaigns on cleanliness
(how clean/dirty is our town?),
employment (who works or doesn’t
and why?), World Cup Fever (is our
town ready for <strong>the</strong> mega-event?)
and heritage (national monuments
in town).
The CJs like to get bylines in <strong>the</strong>
paper but nothing appeals to <strong>the</strong>m
better than hearing <strong>the</strong>ir stories on
radio. They do this by producing and
presenting an hour-long current
affairs show on Radio Grahamstown
twice a week.
The result is that good stories now
play on three media platforms:
online, print and radio. All of this
rests on a community of practice
where CJs not only have an
opportunity to network and share
ideas and information among
<strong>the</strong>mselves, but can also enjoy
mentoring and continuous support
from professional journalists at
regular diary meetings.
On <strong>the</strong> downside, not everyone who
goes through our training courses
makes <strong>the</strong> cut, and a certificate
doesn’t always yield a fired-up CJ.
As evident in what is left of my
team of around 20 active CJs, <strong>the</strong>
numbers dwindle gradually over
time due to <strong>the</strong> same reasons which
lead to a considerable drop-out rate
from our courses.
The majority of our applicants are
young and unemployed, and <strong>the</strong>refore
don’t hesitate to drop out of
our course at <strong>the</strong> slightest prospect
of anything job-like. Some are still
studying and may feel overburdened
with having to juggle <strong>the</strong>ir
schoolwork with our coursework.
Grahamstown’s abject poverty also
prevents some CJs from travelling
around in pursuit of news as <strong>the</strong>y
are short of money for a taxi or to
buy something to eat. Currently, I’m
only left with five CJs.
“...stories that would
o<strong>the</strong>rwise not have
reached <strong>the</strong> public
sphere.”
Never<strong>the</strong>less, for <strong>the</strong> past 12 months
<strong>the</strong>re has been a constant flow of CJ
material to local audiences – stories
that would o<strong>the</strong>rwise not have
reached <strong>the</strong> public sphere. I can bet
you my middle finger that in African
cities where joblessness and poverty
issues are not as pronounced as in
our town, <strong>the</strong> prospects of success
for similar projects will be even
greater.
Section 2: Pluralism
Media in Africa - 2011 | 109