There is a quiet crisis unfolding in journalism, and it is not happening in the big capitals. It is happening in district towns and small cities, where local newspapers are thinning out and court houses go unwatched.
When local news disappears, research shows, civic participation drops, public spending grows less efficient and corruption becomes easier to hide. The headlines may be small — a school budget, a road contract, a river embankment — but their consequences are not.
Supporting local journalism does not require grand gestures. Read it, share it, pay for it when you can. The story of your own neighbourhood is worth more than a thousand distant outrage cycles. Communities that know themselves can govern themselves.
