Journalist Denzyl Janneker in Tillabéri, Niger reporting on the famine gripping the country
In a 14-year career covering everything from civil conflict to politics, crime and sport, there were often times when the death and despair I witnessed gave me pause for thought – do I really want to constantly put my life on the line especially covering the violence raging in South African townships in the power struggle between rival political factions towards the end of Apartheid? It was part of the job I get it, but in newsrooms there was no talk of psychological counseling for the trauma I and fellow hacks witnessed so we persevered. Sure there was an adrenaline rush when you’re surrounded by angry mobs armed with AK47’s, machetes, knobkerries (wooden club with knobs on the end) and stones baying for blood. But quitting suggested a cop out and no journalist worth his/her salt wanted to be tainted with a label that they just weren’t courageous enough. So you bottle it up, have a couple beers with your friends later (pun unintended) go home and be thankful you’ve survived another day. Besides, we all took the view that the public and the world needed to know what was going on, to hold an unjust and racist government accountable in the face of a concerted effort on their part to suppress information.
Skip forward to a post Apartheid environment and this time I’m wondering again whether I should quit the profession. Why would I when I could travel all over the place covering shipwrecks, high profile court cases, spend weekends in game reserves covering nature conservation stories, meet and interview famous musicians and go to their concerts? That and so much more. Truth is, these were real stories but increasingly my employer was taking a different approach as to what constituted news. On a nightly basis, virtually the majority of news coverage shifted to politics, specifically stories that portrayed the government in a favourable light. There was near constant pressure from above for our newsroom to provide saturation coverage of what government departments and the ruling political party were doing, no matter how uninteresting or unimportant stories the stories were. As an acting news editor, I’d get calls from a government PR acolytes regarding a ministerial visit. I’d ask to be convinced why they thought it was worthy of being on the national TV news bulletin. When I remain unconvinced and told them their pitch didn’t warrant coverage, they’d usually threatened to get me fired. I never really feared for my job but I knew the threats could very well be carried out. I knew that it was time to move on, that the very institution I was once proud of working for had taken such a drastic turn, that it had become the de facto mouthpiece for the government and the ruling party and therefore could not be a legitimate disseminator of news and an arbiter of truth. Sticking around to fight for what I believed in was futile, pretty soon I too would be tainted as a lackey by association. The dream had ended. But fate had other ideas – I was awarded a prestigious fellowship to pursue a master’s degree anywhere in the world. Great Britain seemed a good choice, but I opted for the United States instead. My studies gave me renewed perspective of the profession and after graduating, I set about rekindling the fire I once had with the steadfast resolve to be independent and never be bossed around by an employer whose news values were questionable. After spending all those years front of camera, I learnt what it took to work behind the scenes including all the post production work of editing footage. This personal accomplishment has brought me where I am today – the proud founder of my own production company with the resolve to telling real stories, to giving a greater platform to the environmental non-profit, the small bakery or the wannabe social media influencer.
