Bumper 20th African Investigative Journalism Conference edition in the works

The 20th African Investigative Journalism Conference (AIJC) promises to be a bumper edition, dealing with several issues facing journalism today. The issues to be discussed include sustainability, climate change journalism, artificial intelligence (AI), south-south relations, and global north-global south relations.

The event’s new co-ordinator, veteran journalist Beauregard Tromp, told AJENda that the most pressing issue in journalism today is ‘sustainability’, ‘so this will be a very strong focus for us’.

This session will discuss issues such as preparing the ‘perfect pitch, mobilising funding, and ways of looking at different funding models,’ he said.

Discussions on AI will focus on how ‘as journalists and as people who produce content, the content we produce is not just taken and manhandled by some third party for their self-enrichment’.

‘We must ensure that it comes back to journalism.’

‘The other highlight, for me personally, as a journalist, is hearing about the reporter’s notebook. I love seeing the great work that’s been done by our colleagues from across the continent,’ said Tromp, adding that this segment will entail ‘showcasing of the best investigative journalism’ from the continent’s reporters.

The next item on the 20th AIJC agenda, will be on climate crisis: ‘We consider the climate change crises in concert with health issues because the two go hand in hand.’

Experts will be invited to discuss various aspects of climate change and educate participants on how to tell the story about the crisis. ‘We have got various experts coming to talk about how we can actually tell the story in a much more meaningful way, and talking about stuff like climate credits, for instance.’

The conference will also discuss the relationship between the global north and the global south.

‘We know it’s an unequal relationship within our own fraternity as journalists, but generally speaking, how do we better reflect that? How do we actually work towards a more equitable solution?’

In this regard, deliberations will be held on how to foster south-south relations, the co-operation among journalists in African countries and those in Latin America and Asia.

Tromp said delegates from as far away as South America, North America, Europe, Asia and several African countries were signing up for the conference in big numbers, promising a high attendance of Africa’s largest gathering of journalists. The conference will not be streamed online to avoid employing resources that could be utilised to improve the experience of delegates.

Thanks to funding from donors, resources are available to bring in young investigative journalists from various parts of the continent.

‘I know oftentimes it’s seen as a reward for having years and years of excellent work, and you mostly find seniors, senior journalists, attending. But this time we will also include that new generation of investigative journalists,’ said Tromp

The AIJC runs a fellowship for journalists under the age of 30, and through this initiative, 20 journalists from across the continent will be brought to the conference. Students from journalism schools will also be accommodated.

Usual events such as the Carlos Cardoso Memorial Lecture (see video below) will also take place, followed by the awarding of the year’s leading investigative journalist in Africa prize.

Al Jazeera’s director of investigative journalism Phil Rees will be in attendance and he is expected talk about how the network conducts investigative journalism on the war in Gaza.

Tromp will be seeing through his first AIJC, after replacing Professor Anton Harber who founded the AIJC 20 years ago and retired last year.

Tromp doubles up as the Africa editor at the Organised Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, a cross-border investigative journalism network. He has previously served as the deputy editor at the Mail & Guardian newspaper and worked at various South African publications.

He was previously the Africa Correspondent for the Independent Media group and is a 2013 Harvard Nieman fellow, as well as a former Knight Chair for journalism at the University of Miami. He is the co-author of the book Hani: A Life Too Short, a biography of liberation fighter Chris Hani.

Tromp has won several accolades in his career including CNN/Multichoice African Print Journalist of the Year, Vodacom Journalist of the Year and Mondi Shanduka Journalist of the Year.

Click here to see the full programme of the AIJC.

Registrations are still open here