VUYO MVOKO: Squandered public trust is media’s main threatMY WORLD Cup went very well, thank you. Published: 2010/08/18 06:41:56 AM
MY WORLD Cup went very well, thank you. I was in the relative peace of my hometown, Port Elizabeth, and I had perhaps the most exciting career move of my life to look forward to after the football. To say I was flattered when I was approached to edit The New Age newspaper is an understatement. Now I have had time to look at the project with a more measured eye, it is safe to say I probably hold the toughest editorship in SA. This is not, as you might imagine, because I work for “difficult” employers. My difficulty stems in part from the realisation that, at least in the opinion of virtually every other senior journalist in SA, I have become a deployed cadre in the media. And like all deployees, it is expected that I will take my orders from Luthuli House and the Union Buildings. In all our conversations before I agreed to take the job, publisher Atul Gupta never once mentioned this, or suggested a red telephone would be among my office supplies. How I became the editor of Pravda or “The JZ Times” without knowing it is beyond me. My problems started with the media launch of the newspaper in July. There we spoke about what sort of publication we wanted to be — that we would adopt a positive stance on SA and its future; cover the whole country by having journalists in every province; and broadly support efforts by the government and others to transform SA. Most importantly, we committed ourselves to criticise and interrogate power without pretending those in power are illegitimate. This is the only rational way for a newspaper to operate in an electoral democracy in which one’s preferences may not always prevail. The howls of derision were deafening. “Sunshine journalism”, they said. “Patriotic journalism”, others chimed in. Why, only this week, talk show host Redi Direko implored the government to “use the opportunity presented by The New Age to address any issues it has with language diversity in the press”. Really? Does the fact that this is a privately funded commercial enterprise elude our esteemed colleagues? How do you even make the conceptual leap from a newspaper supporting SA’s attempts to transform itself, to one where the government is given free reign to “address issues” they have with the press? Last week, readers of the Mail & Guardian were also assured that they would never see us hauled before the proposed media appeals tribunal. Why not? Well, as President Jacob Zuma ’s paper, we will have indemnity from such interference . Is it mean spiritedness or silliness that leads someone to think that some of the top journalists in this country would lend their names to such a naked farce? It is clear from the reactions of many in the media that there is little room for nuance in our public space. There is a debilitating either/or discourse that explains the impasse the press is experiencing in relation to the African National Congress (ANC). The “debate” about the tribunal is nothing more than a dialogue of the aggrieved. The ANC thinks it can make policy driven primarily by its sense of grievance that the media dare intrude into its inner sanctum , and dare expose its many “sins of incumbency”. I am also astounded at the media’s lack of self- awareness. We are not all one monolithic, virtuous voice for freedom. Our histories are diverse and some in the media have, to varying degrees, co-operated in the near-destruction of media freedom under apartheid. Today, the media is a highly contested site of power — often in the control of vested interests. “Public good” is not always the first motivation of newspapers and those who own or run them. South Africans have not forgotten how critical to the fight for liberation a free press was. Why is it then that many ordinary members of the public do not stand with us against our powerful detractors? The biggest threats to media freedom in SA are not the politicians with their harsh tribunals and restrictive laws. It is the slow haemorrhage of public trust in us, for which we alone are responsible. The New Age will not reinvent the wheel, or even perfect journalism. All we want is a chance to compete. South Africans will decide whether to buy what we will offer them. - Mvoko is editor-in-chief of The New Age. http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=118277 -- News is something someone, somewhere doesn’t want to read. The rest is PR.— Claud Cockburn www.kwelaxpress.co.za -- 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] .
