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Verashni Pillay

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Verashni Pillay
Born (1984-02-11) 11 February 1984 (age 40)
Pretoria, South Africa
NationalitySouth African
CitizenshipSouth African
EducationBachelor of Journalism
Alma materRhodes University
Occupation(s)Journalist, editor
AwardsCNN Africa Journalism Award for digital journalism, Mandela Washington Fellowship, BBC 100 women

Verashni Pillay (born 11 February 1984) is a South African journalist and editor. She was the editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post South Africa and the Mail & Guardian. She was head of digital at South African radio station, POWER 98.7 and currently runs her own company, explain.co.za.[1]

Early life

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Pillay was born on 11 February 1984 and grew up in Laudium, Pretoria. In 2007 she graduated with an honours degree in journalism from Rhodes University.[2]

Career

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Pillay began working as a journalist in January 2007 at News24, after winning a bursary from the publication to complete her honours degree.[3] She later joined the Mail & Guardian in 2009, where she rose quickly within the ranks of the publication.[4] She was an early adopter of digital within journalism, winning two first-time digital categories at traditional journalism awards. In 2012 she won the prestigious CNN African Journalist of the Year award in the inaugural digital journalism category.[5] In 2013 she won the inaugural Standard Bank Sikuvile award for multiplatform journalism.[6]

Pillay has written extensively about race and gender. She contributed an essay to the collection, Categories of Persons (2013) about popular culture and language.[7] In 2015 she was appointed as the editor-in-chief of the Mail & Guardian.[8] Pillay was known for creating a strong editorial team and helped the Mail & Guardian grow in circulation.[9] She increased year-on-year total circulation every quarter during her time as editor-in-chief of the M&G, the only SA newspaper in any category to do so in that period.[10][11][12]

In 2015 she was selected as one of the BBC’s 100 Women.[13] In 2016 she won the Standard Bank Sikuvile award in the columns/editorial category for a body of her work as a columnist.[14]

On 1 November 2016 she was headhunted for the position of editor-in-chief at The Huffington Post (South Africa).[2] After resigning on principle she joined radio station POWER 98.7 as head of digital.

Controversy

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In January 2016 Pillay co-wrote an article in the Mail & Guardian quoting sources that claimed Mmusi Maimane, leader of opposition party the Democratic Alliance, had been taking "leadership lessons" from the country's last apartheid leader FW de Klerk.[15] Pillay later apologised for not taking more steps to verify the allegations and promised to improve processes and admit and fix mistakes quickly in future.[16][17] Maimane and the DA accepted the apology.[18]

In April 2017 the South African edition of the Huffington Post published a now deleted blog headlined "Could It Be Time To Deny White Men The Franchise?" that suggested white men should be denied the right to vote. Pillay initially defended the purported author behind the piece, who was on the receiving end of sexist attacks, and defended the underlying theme that white men held more power, while saying she did not agree with everything in the blog, in a now deleted article.[19] It subsequently emerged the post had been written by a white man who had wanted to make a point about the lack of fact checking in South African media and who had intentionally based the argument on material errors.[20] Pillay apologised.[21]

She resigned[22] on principle on 22 April 2017, following a ruling by the South Africa's Press Ombud that the fake article had amounted to hate speech.[23] HuffPost SA and Media 24 immediately published and complied with the ruling,[24][25] despite public concerns over its soundness and its definition of hate speech.[26][27][28][29] Pillay appealed the ruling in her personal capacity. A full panel of the appeals board of the Press Ombud overturned that finding, in a closely followed hearing.[30][31]

Following the incident Pillay noted in an interview that while she acknowledged her errors and had resigned because of them, her team had been operating in a stretched newsroom where the publisher insisted on 30 unique pieces of content a day, with three junior reporters. She said requests for sub editors had been turned down and that the blogs editor had been asked to double up as a reporter.[32]

The HuffPost SA blogs editor, Sipho Hlongwane, was later made to face a disciplinary hearing but resigned before it took place.[33]

References

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  1. ^ "Put your hands up". 3 February 2022.
  2. ^ a b "Media24 appoints Verashni Pillay as editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post SA". 28 September 2016.
  3. ^ "Media24 appoints Verashni Pillay as editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post SA - Media24.com". www.media24.com. Retrieved 6 December 2017.
  4. ^ Paul, Barun (5 October 2015). "The Mail & Guardian gets a New Editor-in-Chief". One World News. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  5. ^ "CNN.com - CNN African Journalist of the Year Competition". edition.cnn.com. Retrieved 6 December 2017.
  6. ^ "The truth is out there: all the winners of Sikuvile Awards | The Media Online". themediaonline.co.za. 9 May 2013. Retrieved 6 December 2017.
  7. ^ Chetty, Kavish (8 November 2013). "Apartheid Is Still Alive and Well". Cape Times. Archived from the original on 7 December 2017. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  8. ^ "Verashni Pillay appointed editor-in-chief". Mail & Guardian. 5 October 2015.
  9. ^ "Editor-in-chief Verashni Pillay leaves the M&G". Mail and Guardian. 28 September 2016. Retrieved 12 December 2016.
  10. ^ "ABC Analysis Q4 2015: The biggest-circulating newspapers in SA". Marklives.com. 23 February 2016. Retrieved 6 December 2017.
  11. ^ "ABC Analysis Q1 2016: The biggest-circulating newspapers in SA". Marklives.com. 10 May 2016. Retrieved 6 December 2017.
  12. ^ "ABC Analysis Q2 2016: The biggest-circulating newspapers in SA". Marklives.com. 11 August 2016. Retrieved 6 December 2017.
  13. ^ "South Africa well represented in BBC 100 Women List" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 7 December 2017. Retrieved 6 December 2017.
  14. ^ Reporter, M&G. "Mail & Guardian wins industry awards and continues to grow in circulation". The M&G Online. Retrieved 6 December 2017.
  15. ^ "A noble title joins the decline of SA newspapers". News24. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
  16. ^ Pillay, Verashni. "Mea culpa: We should have done better". The M&G Online. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
  17. ^ "M&G editor apologises for report claiming Maimane took lessons from De Klerk". News24. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
  18. ^ Alliance, Democratic. "The DA responds to the M&G's apology". The M&G Online. Retrieved 6 December 2017.
  19. ^ "White Men And The Vote: Why We Took The Blog Down". Huffington Post South Africa. 14 April 2017. Retrieved 6 December 2017.
  20. ^ "Inside story of the Shelley Garland story | The Media Online". themediaonline.co.za. August 2017. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
  21. ^ "Verashni Pillay: What Marius Roodt Did Was Wrong. But It Does Not Exonerate Me". Huffington Post South Africa. 19 April 2017. Retrieved 14 October 2017.
  22. ^ "Verashni Pillay Resigns As Editor-in-Chief Of HuffPost SA". HuffPost South Africa. 22 April 2017. Retrieved 8 November 2018.
  23. ^ "The Ombud's Full Ruling Against Huffington Post South Africa". HuffPost South Africa. 22 April 2017. Retrieved 8 November 2018.
  24. ^ "The Ombud's Full Ruling Against Huffington Post South Africa". Huffington Post South Africa. 22 April 2017. Retrieved 6 December 2017.
  25. ^ "Former HuffPost SA editor slams 'bizarre' hate speech ruling". Retrieved 6 December 2017.
  26. ^ "Press Council Executive Director Joe Thloloe Appeals Huffington Post Hate Speech Ruling". Huffington Post South Africa. 25 April 2017. Retrieved 6 December 2017.
  27. ^ "Johan Retief's Ruling Mounts To A Blanket Silencing Of Debate". Huffington Post South Africa. 23 April 2017. Retrieved 6 December 2017.
  28. ^ "The Press Ombusdman's Huffington Post ruling - #ShelleyGarland and hate speech | Synapses". Synapses. 23 April 2017. Retrieved 6 December 2017.
  29. ^ "Huffington Post: Why the ombudsman got it wrong | Daily Maverick". www.dailymaverick.co.za. 24 April 2017. Retrieved 6 December 2017.
  30. ^ "Verashni Pillay wins appeal against hate speech ruling". eNCA. Retrieved 8 November 2018.
  31. ^ Pather, Ra'eesa. "Press ombud hate speech ruling on HuffPost SA set aside". The M&G Online. Retrieved 6 December 2017.
  32. ^ "Pillay opens up about hate speech appeal | The Media Online". themediaonline.co.za. 23 August 2017. Retrieved 6 December 2017.
  33. ^ "Right 2 Know submission" (PDF).
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