Interview with Guy Berger

Guy Berger graduated with a BA in Journalism from Rhodes in 1977 and BA Honours in 1978. While still a student he founded and edited a local community newspaper, Izwi laseRhini. In 1980 he was detained, tortured and spent three months in solitary confinement before being brought to trial and sentenced to seven years in jail for possessing banned books and being a member of the ANC. He was released in 1983 and spent two years working as a media consultant and training officer before being forced into exile in London, where he established and ran Afravision, a TV production and distribution company, was a correspondent for the Morning Star and foreign correspondent for the Johannesburg-based New Nation, and completed his PhD. Following his return to SA he became editor of New Era, editor and CEO of the weekly newspaper South and led the formation of the Independent Media and Diversity Trust. In 1994 Guy was appointed Professor and Head of the Department of Journalism and Media Studies. As Head he oversaw a fundamental overhaul and expansion of the department and its transition to a School; initiated the New Media Lab to deal with rapidly-emerging digital technology; set up and obtained funding for the Sol Plaatje Media Leadership Institute; secured funding for the purchase of Grocott’s Mail; championed the School’s successful bid to host the 2nd World Journalism Education Congress; played a central role in the Highway Africa conference; and, conceptualised and obtained funding of R7 million for the construction of the Africa Media Matrix building. Guy has been awarded numerous fellowships and scholarships. He was the first, and so far, only, academic to be awarded SANEF’s Nat Nakasa Award for Media Integrity. In 2011 he left JMS to take up the post of UNESCO’s Director for Freedom of Expression and Media Development.