 Insults
and threats won’t hide the truth
Editorial, City Press, Johannesburg, 21
March 2010
WE in the world of journalism play a hardball game. We infringe on privacy, access company records and often write about issues that individuals would prefer did not see the light of day. It’s the function of the media in society to act as the Fourth Estate that protects society’s higher values. In this we are guided by our constitution, which enshrines freedom of _expression_. But like all rights it is balanced by responsibilities. We have to tell the truth; we have to be accurate; we have to allow the other side to tell their story. We must respect our reading public and maintain the highest professional standards. In City Press’s coverage of the business dealings of the ANC Youth League president, Julius Malema, we have accessed his company records and then laboured for months unravelling his business interests because he is the most powerful politician in the country and he wields influence. He is pushing a nationalisation agenda while not practising what he preaches. He is a classic example of a tenderpreneur and he is the country’s best-known politician. There is a lot of public interest in his business dealings. As we have investigated him we have had to satisfy the terms of the press code of conduct that guides journalists’ work and have kept our lawyers in our offices to ensure that our coverage is legally watertight. Now the league seems to believe it is held to no such standards. It has put damaging information about our investigations editor in the public domain and insisted that journalists cover this story even though it is riddled with factual inaccuracies and falsehoods. When our colleagues refused to cover the story, the league’s spokesperson, Floyd Shivambu, threatened those journalists with exposure of their personal details too. Journalists have been maligned in public forums and insulted and threatened. It is clear that the league is using security agents to access information about its perceived enemies to continue its dirty fight. This is not the way of decency in a constitutional state but the ANC no longer has the tempering hand of the wise elders. The party has been cowed into silence by the child soldiers who threaten mayhem and brook no difference. Now the South African National Editors Forum is insisting on a meeting with President Jacob Zuma to bring these damaging dirty tricks to his attention and to get him to pull his power drunk youth league back from a damaging confrontation between politics and the media in which intelligence databases are once again being abused. We do hope the president will leash the Young Lions. Journalism can claim no special privileges but at least we deserve to be allowed to do our work within the ambit of our laws without slander and threat. You are subscribed. This footer can help you. Please POST your comments to [email protected] or reply to this message. You can visit the group WEB SITE at http://groups.google.com/group/yclsa-eom-forum for different delivery options, pages, files and membership. To UNSUBSCRIBE, please email [email protected] . You don't have to put anything in the "Subject:" field. You don't have to put anything in the message part. All you have to do is to send an e-mail to this address (repeat): [email protected] . To unsubscribe from this group, send email to yclsa-eom-forum+unsubscribegooglegroups.com or reply to this email with the words "REMOVE ME" as the subject. |
