The renowned journalist and prominent South African media figure Ton Vosloo announced the launch of a new public benefit company called Truth First/ Waarheid Eerste on Thursday evening at a Stellenbosch University (SU) cluster event.
The talk with Vosloo, hosted on the stoep of the Heemstede building, where an earlier version of Naspers was founded in 1914, was focused around his new book and memoir “Across Boundaries”.
The conversation was led by prof. Lizette Rabe of the Stellenbosch University Department of Journalism and revealed a new means by which media freedom can in future be fought for in South Africa.
The audience listening to the conversation between Ton Vosloo and prof. Lizette Rabe at the SU cluster event. Photo: Courtney Williams
Vosloo announced that the new company founded by him and his wife Anet Pienaar-Vosloo will serve to support and promote quality investigative journalism in South Africa, in order to contribute to the upholding and ensuring of media freedom in the country.
Facilitating a themed discussion on crossing boundaries, Rabe asked Vosloo about the boundaries he predicts South Africa will have to cross in the near future.
“I think that what we have at the moment, thanks to the ANC-government when they started running the country, is that we have a constitution and we have press or media freedom that is guaranteed under the constitution. That is the greatest step forward and that is our holy shrine. We in journalism have to fight for and keep that freedom. But that freedom must not be abused”, said Vosloo.
Funded by Naspers-shares donated by Vosloo and his wife, the new company will contribute to the struggle against corruption and promote the role that the media plays in upholding the democracy in South Africa.
Ton Vosloo and Lizette Rabe on the stoep of the Heemstede building. Photo: Courtney Williams
“We are inviting all Naspers shareholders and the public to become subscribers to Truth First because we think that the biggest single job that we can do as the media, is to keep on grafting, to keep on digging and rooting out corruption. And for that you need investigative journalists of the highest quality”, Vosloo explained to the audience.
He went on to add that because “the media scene and the papers are fairly poor at present times, it would be helpful if we could have this public benefit company supporting investigative journalism.”
Rabe concluded the talk with Vosloo by referring to the media as the “watchdogs of society” because according to her “without a free media there is no democracy”.