By Juliet Nanfuka |
The Collaboration on International ICT Policy for East and Southern Africa (CIPESA) has endorsed the Johannesburg Declaration, adopted at the M20 Summit held in Johannesburg, South Africa, on September 1-2,2025. The Summit, convened by the South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) and Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) is a parallel independent initiative to the Group of Twenty (G20) – an international forum of both developing and developed countries that seeks to find solutions to global economic and financial issues. CIPESA was proud to not only support the Summit but to also participate and to contribute to the drafting process of the Declaration.
The Declaration is a response to the global crisis in the integrity of information, peace and respect for human rights, including environmental rights. It serves as a call to the media, the G20 and the wider public to recognise that the information integrity crisis is “intensifying as the spaces for independent news media and civic engagement contract.”
Further, the Declaration reinforces the fact that democratic societies grow through the supply of reliable information in a timely manner. Yet today there is a widescale erosion of sources of information and knowledge. The Declaration also notes that independent journalism is a vital public good, and fundamental to people’s right of access to information, and to the sustenance of peace and democratic governance.
CIPESA joins over fifty organisations in this call that serves an injunction to everyone to do more to protect press freedom, and support the role of journalism, and a human rights-based media ecosystem in its contribution to the public good.
You can read the full text of the Johannesburg Declaration here.
Information integrity has featured on CIPESA programming including in May 2025 when Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) and UNESCO officially launched regional consultations to develop the African guidelines for monitoring technology companies’ roles in ensuring information integrity on their platforms. CIPESA participated in a high-level panel discussion on the March 2025 adoption of the Resolution on developing Guidelines to assist States monitor technology companies in respect of their duty to maintain information integrity through independent fact checking – ACHPR/Res.630 (LXXXII) 2025 by the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR). The discussion was held at the Digital Rights and Inclusion Forum (DRIF) 2025 hosted by Paradigm Initiative (PIN),
CIPESA has also made a series of recommendations to the Resolution which instructs the Special Rapporteur to collaborate with civil society, regulators, and technology companies to create Guidelines that enable effective monitoring of platforms, including assessing the role and effectiveness of independent fact-checking initiatives.
At the September 2025 Forum on Internet Freedom in Africa (FIFAfrica25), information integrity is among the themes up for debate and discussion including through a dedicated consultation on ACHPR/Res.630 (LXXXII) 2025.
CIPESA’s endorsement of the Johannesburg Declaration serves as a testament to the belief that a free, plural, and rights-respecting information ecosystem is the cornerstone of Africa’s digital and democratic future.