Journalism will never die, Journalism is not a crime!

Keletso Thobega | Monday December 1, 2025 06:00

The five-day conference included a wide array of presentations and workshops by seasoned journalists and media academics on data investigations, AI in journalism, climate and health investigative reporting, countering disinformation, uncovering human trafficking, investigating online gambling, using open source tools for investigations, illicit financial flows and security, among many other topics.

This year, the GIJC gathering, which is held every two years, attracted over 1500 journalists from 80 countries. The previous edition was held in Sweden, with the next slated for the Netherlands.

In 2023, I attended the African Investigative Journalism Conference (AIJC) in Johannesburg, South Africa, and it brought journalism closer to me in an indescribable manner; it gave me an appreciation of the great work that journalists across Africa do to hold power to account and empower and inform communities. GIJC elevated those insights.

In any society, journalism serves as a powerful tool for information sharing, influencing policy, uncovering truth, countering corruption and holding power to account. It also empowers communities and supports democracy. Without credible journalism, communities and societies would surely crumble. The GIJC keynote speaker was Maria Ressa, a veteran journalist and Nobel Peace Prize Laureate.

The brilliant Ressa struck a chord the first time I heard her speak in Bonn, Germany, last year at the Global Media Forum, where she was a panellist. At that particular conference, she held no barrels as she spoke on big tech and its dangerously unhinged influence on media.

Hearing her speak again was a refreshingly sheer pleasure, given her well-informed insights and grasp of global affairs about democracy and media. The theme of the GIJC was around the threat to journalism, and Ressa spoke about the importance of journalists maintaining resilience in a time of crisis. She made a powerful call for the under-fire investigative reporting community to embrace 'radical collaboration,' and to use the crisis as an opportunity for impact and survival. “Everything we knew as the journalism industry has been destroyed. But we don’t stand still. This is a time for radical collaboration,” she said. At a global moment of rampant authoritarianism, emboldened tech oligarchs, media funding freezes, and both cyber and physical attacks on journalists, Ressa used her keynote address to highlight that press freedoms are being restricted and warn that 2026 could represent a crucial, one-year window for many independent newsrooms to secure their rights, their partnerships, and their new sustainability models.

Ressa further warned of the poisonous and polarising consequences of the global war on facts perpetrated by tech algorithms, where hate is amplified, and vulnerable communities are further marginalised. “Without facts you can’t have truth; without truth you can’t have trust,” she cautioned. “Without these, you cannot solve existential problems like climate change. You cannot have democracy. As has been said]: colonialism didn’t die; it just moved online.” Ressa also said tech companies should be watched with a hawk's eye. “Our enemies are not the governments. They rose on top of technologies that have splintered our societies apart. None of the tech that rules our lives today is anchored in facts,” she said. Ressa additionally warned of growing kleptocracy around the world, fuelled by the “normalisation of lies” through feedback loops amplified by decentralised networks of influencers and reinforced by platforms that reward emotionally charged content.

The executive director of the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN), the organisers of the GIJC, Emilia Diaz-Struck, said she was inspired to know that many journalists remain steadfast and dedicated to their profession despite the threats they face. “We know that this was a tough year for everyone. But the fact that we have more than 1,500 attendees from 135 countries and territories sends a powerful message,” she said.

There is no denying that journalism is facing some of its biggest problems in history, including budget cuts, layoffs, harassment, surveillance and hostility towards media workers, but that should not deter journalists from doing their work, noted Diaz-Struck. She said: “Despite all these challenges we’re facing — democracy going backwards, wars, more journalists in exile — we are alive; we are resilient; and we are doing the investigative journalism that is key for society: holding powers to account.”

**Keletso Thobega is a journalist and data consultant. She attended the conference on a GIJC fellowship supported by iMEdD (Incubator for Media Education and Development), a non-profit organisation that was established in Athens, Greece in 2018, founded to reinforce transparency, credibility and independence in journalism, with a focus on nurturing trust in the media and fostering impactful and ethical reporting.