Thousands of readers salivated indignantly over the Sowetan’s recent shocking but salacious front page, featuring a man and woman in correctional services and police uniforms –in a rather compromising position. Sowetan’s newly-appointed editor, Mpumelelo Mkhabela says it was all about public interest and it had nothing to do with sales.

William Bird from Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) joined in the outrage but in a more considered way. He listed in his statement the usual social and economic problems in South Africa and contrasted them with the “disturbing” fact that the Sowetan chose to “lead with a story featuring sexually explicit material”.He asked whether the story was led by the picture. “Had the Sowetan not accessed the video footage, would they have run the story?”

For the full article go to dailymaverick.co.za