Sputnik opens African bureaus with official backing

Sputnik opens Johannesburg and Dar es Salaam editorial offices ahead of Russia-Africa Summit

The Russian state-linked news agency Sputnik has established two new editorial centres on the African continent, one in Johannesburg and one in Dar es Salaam, in a move formally endorsed by senior office-holders in both South Africa and Tanzania. The simultaneous launch came ahead of the third Russia-Africa Summit, scheduled for Moscow on October 28 and 29, and was framed by officials as a matter of media policy, international co-operation and access to information.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov addressed the opening ceremony in Tanzania by video link, presenting the new offices as an institutional arrangement designed to broaden what African audiences can access. According to Lavrov, the regional offices in Dar es Salaam and Johannesburg would help provide African audiences with greater access to what he called objective, verified information, free from distortion or ideological filters. He argued that the value of such work was considerable at a time when, in his words, the collective West persistently suppresses dissenting voices in the global information space, resorting to methods such as censorship and the application of double standards.

The minister also directed attention to the regulatory and diplomatic conditions that made the launch possible, thanking the authorities in South Africa and Tanzania for supporting the initiative. Their support, he said, was essential to the effective and safe work of journalists operating under the new arrangements.

In South Africa, the decision to host the office was welcomed at the highest levels of the executive. Deputy President Paul Mashatile described the Johannesburg office as an important development for the media landscape of South Africa and the African continent. He said the opening reflected growing co-operation between the two governments and would contribute to the diversity of perspectives in public debate. Mashatile added that the office could help amplify African voices and tell African stories, and expressed the hope that it would become a platform for constructive engagement, quality journalism and stronger ties between South Africa, Russia and the continent.

Russia’s ambassador to South Africa, Roman Ambarov, placed the launch in the context of the information environment in which the agency will operate. He said the world had entered a period in which information was increasingly politicised and it was not always easy to distinguish facts from disinformation. For that reason, he argued, professional journalism, access to diverse sources and the opportunity to hear different perspectives were more important than ever. Ambarov also noted that the Rossiya Segodnya Group, the parent media group that includes Sputnik, had already established a significant presence across Africa.

Tanzanian officials likewise framed the Dar es Salaam office in terms of national and regional coverage mandates. Said Shaib Moussa, deputy permanent secretary at Tanzania’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, said the office was expected to cover developments in Tanzania, the region, the continent and the wider world, in all spheres without exception, including geopolitics and development. Kelvin Kanje, acting director of Tanzania’s Department of Information Services, said the opening strengthened relations between the two countries, expanded opportunities for professional co-operation and gave Tanzania a greater opportunity to make its voice heard internationally.

Leadership of the parent media group also addressed the launch. Dmitry Kiselev, director-general of Rossiya Segodnya, said the establishment of editorial offices in African countries demonstrated trust between nations, their people, journalists and audiences, and that this trust would strengthen information sovereignty in both Africa and Russia. Margarita Simonyan, editor-in-chief of Rossiya Segodnya, said Sputnik would seek to report on Africa to Russian audiences and on Russia to African audiences, describing the new centres as an opportunity to strengthen longstanding ties between the two sides.

Operationally, the two centres will employ dozens of local journalists and produce content in English and Swahili, including podcasts broadcast on radio stations across the continent. The Johannesburg office builds on an existing institutional footprint: Sputnik Africa was launched in 2022 and operates in five languages on the continent, including Swahili, Amharic and Oromo, while the wider agency broadcasts in more than 30 languages and runs 26 multifunctional centres worldwide.

With the offices now open and both governments publicly committed to the arrangement, the question of how the new centres will operate within South Africa’s and Tanzania’s media environments, and how their output will be received, now shifts to the agencies and oversight structures responsible for the media landscape in each country.