Carol Paton joins Fin24 as writer-at-large

Fin24 has appointed renowned political and financial journalist Carol Paton. She joins the team from 1 December as writer-at-large.

Paton's particular areas of focus for Fin24 will be the political economy, state-owned enterprises and the energy sector.

Fin24 editor Helena Wasserman said Paton is an outstanding journalist, and that her appointment brings a wealth of expert knowledge to the news platform. 

“We are honoured to have Carol on our team. For many years, she has been on the forefront of financial journalism in South Africa, shaping the national political and economic agenda. News24 and Fin24’s readers will draw immense benefit from her reporting and insight,” she said. 

Paton has worked as a political and financial writer for Financial Mail, Sunday Times and most recently, Business Day. She has a special interest in the interplay between politics and the economy.

She says:

Paton is a past winner of the Standard Bank Sikuvile Award for Best Opinion Writer; the Citi Journalistic Excellence Award and the Sanlam journalism award for writing on Industries and Economy. She also won an award from the US Embassy for an exposé of cronyism and corruption in municipalities, and a fellowship from the Open Society (SA) which resulted in an acclaimed exposé on the corrupting relationship between business and politics in the ANC.

She also won the Sanlam Best Print Financial Journalist award in 2015.

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"Our role as journalists is to provide everyone in society with the information they need to make decisions and choices. Whether that is voters who decide who to vote for, or whether that is policymakers who decide what to do about unemployment. That remains the role of journalism," she says.

Paton brings to Fin24 more than two decades' experience in the media.

"News24 and Fin24 are very exciting platforms to be part of because they are well resourced, well run, have high professional standards and have a very wide reach over a diverse audience. I'm very excited to be writing for that audience and be part of the team," she says.

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