Media Monday - hot topics and topics that make us hopping mad! 11 July 2011

Posted: 11 July 2011 | News - Newsletter | Categories: Democracy and Governance, Media Freedom and Performance

Here is what’s coming up this Media Monday:

  • Press Freedom Commission launched, ANC still not happy
  • UK phone hacking scandal and media regulation: comparison to SA
  • Public Protector saga: Police and Justice Departments singing different tunes, are we all just being played?
  • MMC!

Press Freedom Commission: good move or waste of time? 

Last week Thursday, saw the launch of the Press Freedom Commission (PFC) by the South African National Editors Forum (Sanef) and Print Media South Africa (PMSA) – who are they you ask?  Well they’re the big cheeses behind the print media, the owners and executives.).

The body will be headed by a former chief justice, Pius Langa, and will also have on board other commissioners such as Archbishop Thabo Makgoba (faith-based), Futhi Mtoba (business), Derick Elbrecht (labour), Santie Botha (business marketing), Prof Kobus van Rooyen (law), Dr Phil Mthimkulu (academia), Adv Anshal Bodasing (law) and Prof  Kwame Karikari (international, Ghana).

The PFC will work to find better ways for the media in this country to regulate itself, and will also, among others, review the best practice locally and globally regarding the regulation of print media.

The idea here is to have a body, independent of government influence, that will look at the current print media self regulation landscape in the country, and find ways to improve it amid suggestions by the ruling African National Congress to put in place statutory bodies such as a media appeals tribunal (MAT) to keep the media in check. Not only that, but the body is also tasked with examining different forms of print media regulation and their likely impact on media freedom and democracy.

But the ANC has already expressed its displeasure with the launch by attacking it, and making it known that they are unlikely to warm up to any other form of media regulation except what emerges from an as yet unscheduled parliamentary hearing on the matter.  Jackson Mthembu, the party’s spokesperson, made it clear that his party was unlikely to support a self- regulation option, even if the model was produced by an independent body in the form of the PFC.

Mr Mthembu said the ruling party was not happy at the fact that the process to look at other forms of media regulation was limited to a mandate from PMSA and Sanef to look at self-regulation. A much broader mandate was needed here, he said. Just as the ANC was not happy with the Press Ombudsman saying it is headed by a former journalist, thus expected to be biased in favour of the media, the ANC is still singing the same tune here by suggesting that with the body taking directives from editors and media owners, the body’s findings and suggestions are bound to be biased in media’s favour. In short, the ANC is saying that whole thing is a waste of time and it’s just not going to work.

So what should be done then? What model will work? What is the way forward? Is it either the MAT or nothing?  IS the PFC just wasting their time doing their report when the ANC has already said it considers parliament to be the final arbiter n the matter?  Clearly the ANC has deep reservations about self regulation, and the latest phone hacking scandal in the UK which resulted in an eminent shut down of a top tabloid newspaper, News of the World, is not helping things either, as some have already suggested that the turn of events exposes self regulation mechanism’s failures.

UK phone hacking scandal 

Everybody by now must have heard about the UK’s top tabloid newspaper News of the World’s closure as a result of its much-talked about phone hacking scandals, unless of course you spent the last couple of days under a rock, or memorising the lyrics to Kylie Minogue’s hit songs.  . In case you were, here is a little background info:

The tabloid owned by media mogul Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, has found itself facing a sudden shut down after it was reported that the title has been hacking into people’s phones to get stories. Reports are that the newspaper’s journalist hacked the voicemail of high-profile missing 13-year old girl.

The journalist allegedly listened to voice messages left in the girl’s phone by her family. The News of the world hacker also deleted some messages to free up space when the voicemail box became full, by so doing, giving her family the false belief that she may still be alive when she in fact was already dead, and in so doing also deleting some potentially important evidence. It is also alleged that the paper hacked into phones of families of dead UK troops and other politicians. Following all these, the top-selling title was shut down, said its “Thank you’s” and “Goodbyes” to its readers in its final edition.

The fact that the newspaper was shut down as a result of the mess it is facing could be seen as commendable as it shows that some drastic action was taken commensurate to the offences, but it also raises serious questions of accountability. With the newspaper shut down, it means that there will be no one holding it accountable as it does not exist anymore. The newspaper should be held accountable by a regulatory body or something and ordered to print an apology, as well as what steps would be taken to ensure it could not happen again, but it can’t because it is no more! What is left then are criminal charges for hacking into phones and destroying evidence.

Anyway, the spotlight is now on the UK’s press regulation system, with the Press Complaints Commission (PCC) being labelled a “toothless poodle” for failing to deal with the scandal. The scandal is said to have destroyed any trust in the media, and the PCC’s failure is not making things any better in helping restore that trust.  Does any of this sound familiar about our own Press Council?

The UK Prime Minister, David Cameron on Friday called for an inquiry into the whole mess. Drawing comparisons to what is happening in South Africa with regards to press regulation, our government (and/or the ruling party) and media are trying to sort out forms of media regulation, but the difference is that in UK the plan is to use a public and independent inquiry while in SA, our ruling ANC is calling for a statutory body, and one that is not independent of political influence. So the UK media hacks into people’s phones and deletes evidences and stuff, but government is proposing an independent inquiry; SA media comes nowhere close to that, it reports only on a bit of corruption and lavish spending of state money here and a bit of the President’s wife cheating there, and what it faces as a result is a statutory tribunal? Interesting, really. Are our media as bad? 

The Public Protector and the smear campaign 

The whole Public Protector saga leaves us confused as to whom to trust and believe in between the Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa and the Justice Department. Following reports that the Public Protector Thuli Madonsela was under investigation, the Police Ministry denied that there was any investigations into Madonsela’s business interests, and said that never asked the police to investigate her.

But the Independent Newspaper group insists that it has in its possession a document published on Friday that revealed that senior police officers were probing the matter. So now we have the Police Department saying this, and the Justice Department documents saying that: who is telling the truth; who should we listen to; who should we trust? Are the media being played?  If they have more sources the arrest was imminent where are they?

This Public Protector issue also brought to the fore questions of how smear campaigns are started against those who seem to be poking their noses into the affairs of government officials. The Daily Maverick ran “A-you-connect-the-dots-adventure” about who could possibly be gunning for the Madonsela. The ‘adventure’ said that the answer to that question could be that it is the same person gunning for the Sunday Times investigative journalist Mzilikazi wa Afrika, who was reportedly threatened with hitmen for the same reasons.

eNews also aired a report along the same line along the same line, looking at how smear campaigns are started against such people as the Public Protector, and even look back at previous smear campaigns against former National Prosecuting Authority chief Vusi Pikoli, former director of Public Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka, investigative journalist Mzilikazi wa Afrika, and then the Public Protector Thuli Madonsela. The question for us is who is really playing who?

And our newest MMC with a sharp eye behind the camera lens! 

Our newest MMC, Adrian Baillie-Stewart, is a university-trained, experienced photojournalist who has transitioned from active involvement in photography & photojournalism, towards more activeinvolvement in lecturing in photojournalism, as well as media analysis & research.

You can also be honoured with our MMC title too, by joining media discussions and debates on our Facebook and Twitter pages. Who knows, you could be next!