The Times
*Print media guidelines 'fair'* *Amukelani Chauke, The Times, Johannesburg, 26 April 2012 *ANC secretary-general Gwede Mantashe said yesterday that measures recommended to regulate the print media were "acceptable".
The ANC has for years called for a media appeals tribunal to regulate the print media amid complaints that the Press Ombudsman was "toothless and biased".
Mantashe was speaking at Constitution Hill, Johannesburg, at the release of the Press Freedom Commission's findings.
Chaired by retired chief justice Pius Langa, the commission recommended that the print media move from self-regulation to independent co-regulation, involving public and media representation without state intervention.
Mantashe said the ruling party would debate the commission's recommendations at its policy conference in June.
"What is important about this report is that it has taken everybody out of their comfort zone, from the extremes of the [proposed] statutory regulatory framework and the total self-regulatory framework, to the centre, which gives legitimacy to the body, and gives a fair balance to regulation."
Mantashe said the newly proposed model was "legitimate" and could contribute to best practice in journalism.
At its Polokwane national conference in 2007, the ANC announced plans to establish a media watchdog to regulate the print media.
This prompted the SA Press Council to establish a commission in July last year to look at ways of strengthening the current self-regulatory mechanism, or suggest a more effective method of regulation.
The Press Freedom Commission's recommendations included: * Increasing the number of public members of the governing structures of the Press Council; * Introducing a hierarchy of penalties, including monetary fines, and suspension or expulsion from the jurisdiction of the Press Ombudsman; * Scrapping the waiver that barred those not satisfied with the ombudsman's ruling from approaching the courts for recourse; * Empowering the ombudsman to force newspapers to place apologies or retractions of a specific size on a specific page; and * Initiating talks with the digital media to ensure that they, too, are regulated. The National Editors' Forum welcomed the findings."We are pleased that the [commission] has clearly rejected any involvement of political parties or state officials in the regulation of the press," it said.
*From: http://www.timeslive.co.za/local/2012/04/26/print-media-guidelines-fair*
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