Learn about Our Governance and Reporters
MakanDay, Zambia Centre for Investigative Journalism is an independent, non-profit newsroom established in 2016. The centre produces investigative journalism in the public interest.
MakanDay’s work focuses on transformational stories with “moral force,” and aims to shine a light on the exploitation of the weak by the strong and on the failures of power elites to vindicate the trust placed in them. Our other aim is to provide our audience with content that is authoritative, reliable and factual – information that consumers need to understand the world better.
MakanDay is predominantly financed by donations from philanthropic foundations and by citizen membership. Our research and stories reach the public in cooperation with newspapers, radio and television stations.
As a digital publication, we are able to avoid associated legacy media production costs related to printing or distribution, allowing us to focus on the quality and breadth of our content.
MakanDay is a member of the Global Investigative Journalism Network (GIJN) https://gijn.org and the regional Investigative Journalism Hub (IJ Hub) currently headquartered in Johannesburg. IJ Hub’s other members include sister news platforms in Botswana, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, South Africa and Swaziland.
What topics do we research?
MakanDay researches long-term threats and challenges of our society, abuse of power and corruption in politics, business and economics, labour issues and the justice system. Other topics include the environment, education, health and social justice. MakanDay believes that all these issues are of great importance, and have a significant impact on the lives of many people.
How do we determine whether a topic suits you?
Our topics must have clear relevance to people’s lives. They must be concrete, not abstract. We research in areas where we suspect that something is at stake and that by working on a specific idea, the published outcome will spur positive change.
At the same time, we want to take care of education and training. Not only do we want to share our stories, but we are also keen to pass on our knowledge to others, in order to further enrich the level and quality of public debate throughout Zambia.
What we do
- Through our research, we want to make structural grievances and unethical behaviour public. We help society to help itself. We want to provide people with information so they can make changes and, for example, correct their mistakes by participating in elections.
- Through our independent and non-profit approach, we offer editorial guidance with free access to stories that other publishers would find difficult to research. We want to spread investigative journalism in Zambia and help to maintain diversity and quality in the media.
- We want to pass on our methods and journalistic craftsmanship to all interested citizens and help to enforce information rights on the ground. We want to help citizens to make society more transparent in order to increase the participation of all.
Team
MakanDay is led by its two managing partners. John Mukela is editor-in-chief, with the final authority regarding editorial content. Charles Mafa is the Managing Editor, in charge of operational matters. The managing partners are augmented by a team of freelance contributors and guest columnists and writers.
Governance
MakanDay is governed by a supervisory board led by Professor Ackson Kanduza as chair and Mr. Reuben Lifuka as deputy chair. Dr. O’Brien Kaaba is and Ms. Buumba Kaunga are the other member of the governing board of trustees.
