Media told: 'Don't squeal'
2008-02-10 23:18
Cape Town - The print media was overreacting, as usual, to the African National Congress's intentions to investigate the establishment of a media tribunal, said the party's deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe on Sunday.
Motlanthe and ANC communications chief Pallo Jordan were speaking at the SA National Editors Forum (Sanef) question-and-answer session in Cape Town.
Editors and senior journalists expressed their deep concern at potential infringement of media freedom in South Africa if the investigation into a tribunal went ahead.
Jordan said, regarding the media's reaction: "If you want to engage in the cut and thrust of politics you must not only be able to dish out, but also to take it... without crying and squealing."
At its conference last December, the ANC resolved to set up an investigation into the need for a tribunal.
Motlanthe said: "The aim is to strengthen the self-regulation mechanism of the print media... there is no such thing as an attack on media freedom,".
'The right to privacy'
"As usual, the media are overreacting. They say the ANC is hyper sensitive to criticism, but look at the reaction of the media to this (the tribunal) - they see it as an attack on media freedom".
Motlanthe said the debate was, in fact, about the competing rights and freedoms of the media against the right to privacy and the personal dignity of people.
Jordan said it was understandable, given the history of media repression in South Africa, that editors reacted so quickly to any suggestions they were not doing their jobs properly.
Jordan said the ANC had a good record on media freedom.
"Media freedom has been on the masthead of the ANC since its inception ... there is no (SA) political party with a comparable record on media freedom".
"We value it ... it lends quality to our democracy and it should prevail," said.
The ANC leaders emphasised that the tribunal resolution only set in motion the process of investigating whether there should be one.
Motlanthe said: "There is a need to participate in this... we need cogent arguments... not only from the media fundis.
"We are dealing with ordinary people's views. If there is a general feeling that rights are being trampled over by the media and that there is no recourse, or existing mechanisms are not strong and effective enough, then we (need to) respond and engage it," he said.
Both Motlanthe and Jordan expressed frustration with the existing print media self-regulation mechanism through the Press Council and ombudsman.
Motlanthe said: "We feel sometimes that the press ombudsman is not robust enough... sometimes we write letters ... but we hear nothing."
He conceded however that he did not have immediately to hand a list of such instances.
Tribunal 'a bad idea'
Jordan said his problem was that to get the ombudsman to investigate a complaint, he had to relinquish his constitutional right to sue for defamation in court.
Sanef delegates indicated the question-and-answer session had been informative, but said that Motlanthe and Jordan should take back to the party the message that the media tribunal was a bad idea.
If the ANC felt the press ombudsman system was inadequate, it should rather engage on raising these concerns to make it more effective.
- SAPA