NoFibs is a citizen journalism website in the tradition of one of the first, Margo Kingston’s Webdiary. It is a citizen journalism experiment that was launched prior to the 2013 Australian federal election.
It was founded by former Sydney Morning Herald journalist Margo Kingston, whose Webdiary was one of the first online publications to offer Australians engaged political commentary, and web developer Tony Yegles, in partnership with Macquarie University.
NoFibs’ 2013 election coverage attracted citizen journalists (CJs), both professional and amateur, and was based on the following principles:
- Citizen journalists would report on the electorates where they lived
- They would agree to be bound by the MEAA Journalists’ Code of Ethics
- They were committed to reading reports by other No Fibs CJs
- They belonged to no political party
NoFibs’ 2013 election coverage was a hit – our CJs were inspired, engaged and professional, we were the first media to recognise the potential groundswell of grassroots democracy in the seat of Indi and one of our CJs organised the first candidates’ forum held in the safe ALP seat of Gellibrand.
Our experiment was a success.
Emboldened, we then launched the NoFibs CSG citizen journalism project and subsequently covered SPC Sunday, the Maules Creek Mine issue, and federal election campaigns in 2016 and 2019.
As well as reporting on the issues we already cover, NoFibs’ CJs are welcome to report on a range of issues of interest or concern to them, writing stories that include ongoing news coverage, feature articles and opinion pieces.
For more information about becoming a NoFibs CJ, click here.