Media freedom 'is suffocating'
2006-03-09 10:27
Lizette Rabe
In one week, these four events defined our media landscape. And all four have to do with media "freedom".
In all four we need to ask: how free is our media?
Take 1: Kenya
Last Thursday the police raided the offices of the Standard Group, a media company based in Nairobi that publishes, among others, a daily newspaper. It also has a 24-hour TV station.
According to one source it was not even "ordinary" police ransacking, destroying and confiscating (stealing, one statement said) every piece of electronic equipment they could find.
Nope, it was the "elite" squad, no less. The Kanga Squad, normally used to fight "hardcore" criminals, warmed up by arresting three journalists prior to the raid.
Take 2: Tabloidism
Tabloids as a phenomenon were the topic of two discussions in Johannesburg and Cape Town. There were the antagonists and the protagonists. And never the twain shall meet.
Can a certain commercial success (look at the score board, all those people using their hard-earned cash can't be wrong), and a certain percentage of developmental journalism, on the one hand, justify the damage it is inflicting on society on the other?
Tabloidists should heed the words of a wise elder like Sanef chair Joe Thloloe. Journalism will, one hopes, eventually owe people like Bra Joe for taking a stand in the name of dignity of the people and quality of journalism.
Take 3. International Women's Day
March 8 came, and went. If it weren't for mostly a handful of women making sure some words and some sound bytes were reported, no one would be the wiser.
What does it have to do with media freedom?
Five years ago, on International Media Freedom Day, our country's president said media freedom should be enjoyed by all. Before equality is reached, not only in numbers, but as important, in mindset of how to report on women, there will be no media freedom.
And to quote a different speaker in a different context:
"We have made progress, but progress is a relative thing. We are in the middle of a social revolution and when you are dealing with the dynamics of a revolution, people will not judge where we are or where we have come from, they will judge us based on how far we still must go."
So yes, there was progress over decades - centuries - in terms of the male hegemony in the message-, meaning- and image-making in the media. But we still have a long way to go.
Take 4. The Zuma-case
One almost wants to throw in the towel.
Not only as a journalist about the sensationalist, senseless, insensitive reporting, but also as a citizen.
How can the Zumaists be allowed to incite violence, to BE violent, to chant death warnings, to almost seize the contents of an armoured vehicle in broad daylight, witnessed both by police and cameras, and not be arrested and charged?
But let's stick to the reporting.
The defence in the case is using every trick in the law book, exposing the complainant to secondary victimisation.
The media comes a close second.
There's the sexist, inaccurate reporting and packaging of news. This week there was yet another heading referring to the case as a "sex" case. How can there still be journalists in newsrooms that can make such a "mistake"?
Especially in a country such as South Africa, with its statistics of violence against women, how can "sex" be interchangeable with "rape"?
What does this kind of reporting do to the perception about women and their rights in our beloved country? And this is only one aspect of reporting of rape cases in which newsrooms need some "sensitisation".
The bottom-line?
A free media is the cornerstone of development in a country. The events in Kenya are a warning; media freedom in Africa is suffocating. Thank goodness for a watch dog body such as The African Editors' Forum that has been established just in time.
A free media is the cornerstone of the development of all strata of society. Especially those who for the first time are served with an information product. How free are we from commercialism? How true are our tabloid products to real people's papers?
A free media is the cornerstone of women's development. It has been proved that a country can only prosper if women have equal rights. How free is the media from hegemonic male media mindsets?
Freedom for the media, indeed.
Lizette Rabe is head of the postgraduate Department of Journalism at the University of Stellenbosch, a Sanef council member and Sanef-convenor for the Western Cape. And she's addicted to news.
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