SABC in media firing line

2007-02-14 23:24

Liesl Pretorius

Johannesburg - Negative news coverage of the SABC's affairs increased considerably in the past year, both in newspapers and on TV news.

So says Media Tenor, the media analysis institute, after researching about 320 000 news, business and opinion reports in 20 newspapers and on TV news (e.tv news and SABC bulletins in Afrikaans, English and Sotho).

Negative coverage of the SABC was 20% higher than positive reports last year, compared with a 3,8% difference the previous year.

The SABC is among the big 16 companies and institutions in terms of volume coverage of its affairs in this period.

Of the 16, it tops the list of negative coverage.

This is how the SABC ranked in comparison with others:

SABC - 20% more negative than positive;

Eskom - 12%;

SAA - 11%;

Transnet - 10%; and

Telkom - 2%.

Richard Kunzmann, communication researcher at Media Tenor, says negative coverage of the SABC relates mainly to the "black list" and allegations that SABC management is arrogant and inaccessible.

Beeld reported previously that the SABC had appointed a commission of inquiry to investigate allegations of a black list of people who, for political reasons, should not be approached for comment by SABC- staffers.

Schabir Shaik leads the field

The members of the commission found that certain commentators and analysts had been excluded for no good reason.

Convicted fraudster Schabir Shaik who topped the list of coverage of company executives in 2005, once again led the field last year.

Absa retained its place as the company getting the most coverage.

Cape Town mayor Helen Zille, for the first time, was among the top 10 women mentioned most often in media reports. She was fourth, with 920 news items quoting her, compared with 203 in 2005.

She also was among the Top 10 people featured most frequently in cartoons.

The cartoon list is led by former deputy president Jacob Zuma, with President Thabo Mbeki in second place.

Minister of Health Manto Tshabalala-Msimang is in third place, having replaced President Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, who slipped down to eighth spot.

Zuma also replaced Mbeki as the politician who got the most coverage.

Crime was the subject with the second-most coverage, with the economic and business news first.

Crime featured in 14% of news reports in the past year compared with 12% in 2005.

High-quality Afrikaans journalism

The publication most often quoted by other media, newspapers and TV alike, was the Sunday Times.

Beeld moved up from 12th spot to 7th spot in publications most quoted by other media, while Die Burger moved up from 14th in 2005 to 8th last year.

Media Tenor director Wadim Schreiner said the last two improvements indicated higher-quality journalism in Afrikaans.

SABC3's TV news bulletin at 13:00 fell from 5th place in 2005 out of the Top 10.

- Beeld