''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 coun ...

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

The Star ''The'' () is a grammatical article in English, denoting persons or things already mentioned, under discussion, implied or otherwise presumed familiar to listeners, readers, or speakers. It is the definite article in English. ''The'' is the ...

'', ''

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 int ...

'', '' 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'', ''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 * ...

'', '' Post'', '' Diamond Fields Advertiser'', ''

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 format. Editor Kiki Ntuli describes their target market as "the modernising Zulu ... meone w ...

'', ''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, I ...

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 governme ...

(China International Television Corporation and the

China Africa Development Fund The China-Africa Development Fund, more commonly known as CAD Fund, is a Chinese private equity fund solely funded by China Development Bank, a Chinese government policy bank. The aim of the fund is to stimulate investment in Africa by Chinese c ...

) own the remaining 20% of the newspaper. China International Television Corporation is a wholly-owned subsidiary of state broadcaster

China Central Television China Central Television (CCTV) is a Chinese state- and political party-owned broadcaster controlled by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP). Its 50 different channels broadcast a variety of programing to more than one billion viewers in six lan ...

(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 State media or government media are media outlets that are under financial and/or editorial control of the state or government, directly or indirectly. There are different types of state and government media. State-controlled or state-run medi ...

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. 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 Eco ...

'', 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 resemb ...

' 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