World News Day: every $1 invested in journalism can return $100 to society. So why are we letting it collapse?

REUTERS/Jorge Silva

Right now, there are more journalists behind bars than at any other point in history. Journalists around the world are being imprisoned, exiled, facing legal harassment or are simply being prevented from doing their jobs. We are seeing a whole scale of tactics used to silence them and for the first time in the 25-year history of the World Press Freedom Index, more than half of all countries now fall into its two lowest categories: “difficult” and “very serious.”

The power of journalism on the world stage

As the manipulation of information is being used as a weapon to stoke fear and division, our understanding of the truth has never been more important. Whether it’s about health, climate or the decisions made by those in power, accurate, independent journalism is our best defence against mis- and disinformation and a major part of how we understand the world around us.

How, for example, do we know about the recent FIFA controversy?  We shouldn’t forget that the revelation of FIFA President Gianni Infantino’s proposal to sell off commercial rights to the World Cup was uncovered by journalists. Without their reporting, the future of football, and who profits from it, might look very different.

As WAN-IFRA CEO Stig Ørskov reflects in his comment on the story:

Good journalism also extends far beyond the world of sport. A family deciding what to do in the face of a devastating wildfire is relying on the same basic element football fans relied on before the FIFA story broke: that someone, somewhere, checked before publishing. That difference – between a fact someone verified and one that nobody did – shapes what we believe and often how we act.

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Stig ØrskovCEO, WAN-IFRA

How we support journalists

We see this in our own work with newsrooms. In Nigeria, journalists we have supported are verifying life-saving health information for flood-affected communities. In Kenya and Tanzania, we have trained hundreds of journalists to investigate the illicit financial flows that drain an estimated $89 billion a year from sub-Saharan Africa alone, money that would otherwise fund schools, hospitals and public services. 

As one journalist we work with, Gloria Attah, put it:

Verified information helps people make informed decisions, especially on sensitive issues like security, health and governance. It holds authorities accountable and reduces the panic that can arise from false or misleading reports.

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Gloria AttahJournalist

The economic value of journalism