PERSPECTIVES DIGITAL RIGHTS AND ACCESS TO INFORMATION SERIES 2 A NEW DEAL FOR JOURNALISM IN AFRICA ­PART 1 Three pillars for bringing platforms to pay fair value for public interest journalism Sekoetlane Phamodi May, 2022 Worldwide, the revenue base for journalism has been disrupted by digital innovation and the dominance of technology platforms in the audience and advertiser-facing markets. Revenue models relied upon by news and information services have collapsed, and credible journalism and its social function are at risk. Future-proofing the viability and sustainability of public interest journalism in Africa must encourage platforms to pay fair value for the benefit derived. This will require trust and collaboration between governments, the news and information services that produce public interest journalism, and civil society. To achieve this, three pillars grounded in the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression and Access to Information in Africa are proposed, namely: i) designation of public interest journalism as a public good, ii) incorporation of national public media funds to resource the supply of public interest journalism and safeguard its public value, and iii) draw revenue for these funds from a collective fee mechanism paid by digital indexing and publishing platforms.