''Independent Online'', popularly known as ''IOL'', is a news website based in

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...

. IOL serves the online versions of a number of South African newspapers, including '' The Star'', ''

Pretoria News ''Pretoria News'' is a daily English-medium newspaper established in 1898 in South Africa's capital city Pretoria. It is distributed in the Tshwane Metropolitan area. ''Pretoria News'' covers a range of local news, as well as national and inter ...

'', '' The Daily Voice'', ''

Cape Times The ''Cape Times'' is an English-language morning newspaper owned by Independent News & Media SA and published in Cape Town, South Africa. the newspaper had a daily readership of 261 000 and a circulation of 34 523. By the fourth quarter of ...

'', ''

Cape Argus The ''Cape Argus'' is a daily newspaper co-founded in 1857 by Saul Solomon and published by Sekunjalo in Cape Town, South Africa. It is commonly referred to as ''The Argus''. Although not the first English-language newspaper in South Afric ...

'', ''Weekend Argus'', ''

The Mercury Mercury most commonly refers to: * Mercury (planet), the nearest planet to the Sun * Mercury (element), a metallic chemical element with the symbol Hg * Mercury (mythology), a Roman god Mercury or The Mercury may also refer to: Companies * Me ...

'', ''

Post Post or POST commonly refers to: *Mail, the postal system, especially in Commonwealth of Nations countries **An Post, the Irish national postal service **Canada Post, Canadian postal service **Deutsche Post, German postal service **Iraqi Post, Ira ...

'', ''

Diamond Fields Advertiser The ''Diamond Fields Advertiser (DFA)'' is a daily newspaper published in Kimberley, Northern Cape, Kimberley, South Africa, founded on 23 March 1878. The early days The earliest paper on the Diamond Fields was a weekly called the ''Diamond F ...

'', ''

Isolezwe ''Isolezwe'' is a Zulu-language newspaper launched in 2002 by Independent News & Media. It is published daily in Durban, South Africa, in the Tabloid (newspaper format), tabloid format. Editor Kiki Ntuli describes their target market as "the mod ...

'', ''Daily Tribune'', ''Sunday Tribune'', ''The Independent on Saturday'', and '' The Sunday Independent''.

Corporate affairs

Ownership

Sekunjalo Investments Sekunjalo Investment Holdings (parent company of African Equity Empowerment Investments) is a black owned South Africa-based private equity firm specializing in acquisitions, PIPEs, and buyouts. It has principal operations in publishing, Int ...

owns 55% of the company via its subsidiary Sekunjalo Independent Media, the

Public Investment Corporation The Public Investment Corporation (PIC) is a South African state-owned entity (SOCNational Government of South Africa''Public Investment Corporation SOC Ltd (PIC)'' on www.nationalgovernment.co.za) with R2.339 trillion (USD 145 Billion) o ...

of South Africa owns 25%, and two Chinese

state-owned enterprises A state-owned enterprise (SOE) is a government entity which is established or nationalised by the ''national government'' or ''provincial government'' by an executive order or an act of legislation in order to earn profit for the governmen ...

(China International Television Corporation and the China Africa Development Fund) own the remaining 20% of the newspaper. China International Television Corporation is a wholly-owned subsidiary of state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV). Before 2013, IOL was owned by the

Independent News & Media Mediahuis Ireland (formally Independent News and Media (INM) )) is a media organisation that is based in Dublin and publishes national daily newspapers, Sunday newspapers, regional newspapers and operates multiple websites including Independent. ...

. IOL regularly distributes Chinese state media content.

Management

Vasantha Angamuthu is the CEO of Independent Online, and Lance Witten is Editor.

Reaction

In 2018,

Reporters Without Borders Reporters Without Borders (RWB; french: Reporters sans frontières; RSF) is an international non-profit and non-governmental organization with the stated aim of safeguarding the right to freedom of information. It describes its advocacy as found ...

reported that an IOL columnist was forced out after publishing a column condemning the

persecution of Uyghurs The Chinese government has committed a series of ongoing human rights abuses against Uyghurs and other ethnic and religious minorities in Xinjiang that is often characterized as genocide. Since 2014, the Chinese government, under the a ...

. According to ''

The Economist ''The Economist'' is a British weekly newspaper printed in demitab format and published digitally. It focuses on current affairs, international business, politics, technology, and culture. Based in London, the newspaper is owned by The Econ ...

'', IOL "often engages in '

information laundering Information laundering is the surfacing of news, false or otherwise, from unverified sources into the mainstream. In advancing disinformation in such a way that makes it accepted as ostensibly legitimate information, information laundering resemble ...

' designed to make sentiment appear homegrown, says Herman Wasserman at the

University of Cape Town The University of Cape Town (UCT) ( af, Universiteit van Kaapstad, xh, Yunibesithi ya yaseKapa) is a public research university in Cape Town, South Africa. Established in 1829 as the South African College, it was granted full university statu ...

. For instance, it will run a Chinese news-agency story on the biolab conspiracy, then get a left-wing student leader to write an article expressing concern about the supposed biolabs. Chinese news agencies will use that to write about how South Africans are worried, thus manufacturing a 'story' out of nothing at all."

References

External links

* {{Authority control South African news websites Daily newspapers published in South Africa Online newspapers published in South Africa Mass media in Cape Town

Corporate affairs

Ownership

Management

Reaction

See also

References

External links