IN my life I have watched communities, organisations, and entire countries lose their grip on truth.
asserted
communities → watch → truth
I was just starting my book publishing career in Yugoslavia in the mid-80s when the shared facts that held our society together for 40 years came apart, piece by piece, until people could no longer agree on what our country stood for, on its basic values and, finally, what was actually happening.
uncertain
what → start → values
Hundreds of thousands eventually died.
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thousands → die → ?
Millions were displaced.
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Millions → displace → ?
Individual lives were ruined.
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lives → ruin → ?
Communities were left devastated, with shards of inhumanity and hurt that were bound to self-regenerate for generations.
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that → leave → generations
Decades later, in South Africa, I was part of the opposite movement: a group of dogged journalists digging through the wreckage of state capture, one document at a time, until the theft could no longer be denied.
uncertain
theft → dig → time
That fundamental work was the very spark that helped pull the country back into hope and, ever so briefly, even optimism.
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that → help → hope
Those two experiences taught me the same lesson from opposite directions.
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experiences → teach → directions
A society that loses its grip on facts loses its grip on itself.
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that → lose → itself
A society that fights for truth can still find its way back.
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that → fight → way
That is what World News Day stands for, and why on Sept 28 more than a thousand newsrooms from over a hundred countries will mark it together.
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newsrooms → stand → it
World News Day exists so we can strongly express our belief that reliable information is the infrastructure of our modern, information-based society.
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information → exist → society
Like water or electricity, it is fundamental to our existence and yet nobody thinks about it until it isn’t there, or it’s been replaced by something that looks like news but isn’t.
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that → think → news
Sharing the medium with propaganda outfits and disinformation trolls is one of the great structural weak points of our entire edifice.
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Sharing → share → edifice
Our reports, analyses and investigations travel along the same distribution channels as some of the worst perpetrators of hatred and madness ever to see the face of the Earth.
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reports → travel → Earth
And yet, and yet, we persist.
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we → persist → ?
We are still here, because it is our mission, our motivating force, to be on your side no matter what.
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it → motivate → side
We will always help you know the facts.
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you → help → facts
They don’t arrive on their own.
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They → arrive → own
We have to go and get the facts: read the document, find the witness, check the claims twice, protect sources (who are the ones taking a real risk), ask the questions the powerful people don’t want asked, and then ask them again when they dodge them.
uncertain
they → have → them
We are here to put our name on what we publish and correct it in public if we get it wrong.
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it → put → public
We will make sure you understand what matters.
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what → make → ?
A data point on its own only tells you that something happened.
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something → tell → you
Journalism’s job is to explain why something happened, who benefited, who paid, and what is likely to come next.
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what → explain → ?
Information can fill any number of feeds at blinding speed.
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Information → fill → speed
Journalism has to make sense of the world.
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Journalism → have → world
It is crucial to choose trusted journalism.
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It → choose → journalism
This is not a request to trust every newsroom, or to stop asking hard questions of us.
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This → trust → us
Trust is earned over a lifetime, and it has to be re-energised with every new story.
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it → earn → story
I told my guys at Daily Maverick way too many times that we’re only as good as our latest story.
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we → tell → story
But we invite you, the reader, to look out for reporting that shows where its information came from, that separates news from opinion, that admits when it doesn’t know something yet, and that corrects itself when it’s wrong.
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it → invite → itself
A trustworthy newsroom isn’t one that never makes mistakes.
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that → make → mistakes
It’s one you can watch making them right.
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them → ’ → ?
We owe you the same standard we’re asking you to apply.
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we → owe → you
So on this 2026 World News Day, we’re not just going to tell you that our journalism matters.
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journalism → go → you
We’re going to show you and tell you about the work: the months behind an investigation, the checking behind a breaking story, the correction that made the record more accurate, the local report that actually changed the lived reality of a community.
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that → go → community
Alone, any one of us can be dismissed.
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one → dismiss → us
In many countries we’re being sued into silence, driven into penury or simply ignored.
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we → sue → penury
Still, together, in dozens of languages and more than a hundred countries, we’re harder to ignore.
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we → ’re → languages
…and 17 more, not listed.
The Aporia
