Raymond Joseph is a freelance investigative reporter, fact-checker and journalism trainer. He began his career in journalism began in 1974 and over the years he has worked for mainstream daily, weekend, community and tabloid newspapers and magazines in senior editorial positions, including as an editor, news editor, bureau chief and foreign correspondent. He is also a former editor of The Big Issue South Africa and served on its board for 20 years. He was a founding member of Safrea and has previously served as national chairperson and Western Cape regional chair.
As a journalist, Joseph works across multiple platforms, specialising in data-driven investigative projects and stories and has been investigating corruption involving South Africa’s lottery as part of an ongoing investigation for GroundUp that began in 2017. In 2020, Joseph was among the top three finalists for the Most Resilient Journalist Award, awarded annually by the Netherlands-based Free Press Unlimited. In 2021 he was awarded the Nat Nakasa Award for Courageous Journalism and in 2022 he won both the Vodacom Journalist of the Year and the Vodacom regional and national investigative journalism awards. He was also a joint winner of the prestigious Taco Kuiper Award, South Africa’s only award exclusively for investigative journalism, in 2022.
He has also done extensive journalism and fact-checking training across South Africa and other parts of Africa and is an independent assessor for the International Fact-Checking Network.