Media ombuds neededSo Franz Krüger, the country’s only surviving public editor or ombudsman, who kept journalists on their toes at the Mail & Guardian, has bade us farewell in the final instalment of his column after 11 years (Alarm raised by ship’s cats still resonates).
This means that, of all South Africa’s newspapers, none has a person appointed to correct the wrongs of journalists. The public is left with only the press ombudsman at the South African Press Council.
The only other media outlet with a public editor was the Sunday Times, with Thabo Leshilo at first, followed by veteran journalist Joe Latakgomo, who was recently shown the door.
When he was appointed, Latakgomo said: “The position of public editor has become a critical part of newspapers around the world. It shows a newspaper’s commitment to high journalistic standards.
“As an independent, fair-minded advocate, my experience of over 40 years in journalism will help me deal with issues about which readers raise concern. I look forward to the challenge.”
A few years ago, the editor of a daily newspaper had the temerity to suspend and subsequently fire an editorial staff member who had blown the whistle about a “doctored” picture the paper had used.
The editor and the pictures editor had flouted the code that governs them, and had they had a public editor worth his or her salt that code could have been enforced.
With the demise of the role of the public editor, the only hope is the press ombudsman – but he is seen by some as toothless and there is the view that his recommendations are ignored, defied or challenged by some who pay his salary.
There are instances of journalistic misbehaviour that have to be dealt with by an ombud.
Who has forgotten the Citizen reporter who plagiarised an M&G article, only changing names and place? And the beauty queen running a fashion magazine who was found to have plagiarised her column?
A Daily Sun reporter was involved in an accident while on a weekend binge in a company car, and staged a hijacking to cover it up.
And then there was the Western Cape “brown envelope” scandal. South African journalism is not as squeaky clean as many want us to believe.
The jury is out on whether the press ombudsman is sufficient to hold the media accountable. – Themba Sepotokele, chief director: media engagement, department of communications. He writes here in his personal capacity
ANC denialism has left us without hope
One can sympathise with Ben Turok, a struggle stalwart since the 1950s, being stung (Saul’s critique is selective) by John Saul’s review of the track record of the ANC over the past 20 years (Deluded ANC fell short of true liberation). It is indeed deeply hurtful to those with such high expectations, who sacrificed so much, whose spirits were so raised in 1994.
But is Saul’s critique selective? He presents analyses from a wide variety of sources to trace the path to the extreme crisis South Africa is now facing.
Turok wants “facts”. He sees ample grounds for criticising the “recent performance” of the ANC, but offering “policy documents” and “some resignations” as adequate response is ignoring and denying the root causes.
It is shades of Thabo Mbeki’s denial, not just of Aids but of the ongoing need for power-station construction, teacher, nurse and skills-training colleges, apprenticeships, school inspection, quality civil service, true entrepreneurship, the stemming of capital flight – all essential for sustained progress.
Most corrosive of all: the growth of a new corruption, already evident in the later 1990s, now costing the state R30-billion a year in a country with burgeoning poverty. A variety of leaders struggled in that heroic chapter in the country’s history, with the ANC at its centre.
But historical irony found Nelson Mandela being denied Cyril Ramaphosa as his deputy president, despite Ramaphosa being a trade union leader and a skilled negotiator steeped in the South African reality.
The exiles, claiming exclusive ANC liberation credentials, insisted that the deputy presidency go to former exile Mbeki, the denialist of much of that reality. Internal struggle figures who fought apartheid under the banner of the United Democratic Front were swept aside.
The country’s rich resources at the time, especially human and institutional, which would be essential for integrated development, were sidelined and squandered, something now increasingly seen as disastrous.
These are facts, Professor Turok.
The country destined to have been a shining moral light and the economic powerhouse of Africa is now conniving with corrupt dictators and falling behind it in development.
Nkosi Albert Luthuli’s plea to the apartheid regime in the later 1950s was: “Give my people hope.” What hope does the ANC give its people now? – Balt Verhagen, Johannesburg
Join the debate on academics and the public
The publication of the experiential activists piece by Bandile Mdlalose in [academic journal] Politikon triggered a debate in the public domain that brought two contested areas to light.
The first interrogates the role and nature of the relationship between academics and social movements. The second questions what constitutes knowledge and scholarship fit for scholarly journals.
The subsequent debate in the Mail & Guardian brought forth a third question: ethical academic citizenship and public debate. I regret that, in both her contributions to the M&G, Marie Huchzermeyer quotes and references private emails I sent to other people in my capacity as editor-in-chief, without my permission.
I have noted many inaccuracies in the versions of events presented in the M&G. Politikon has a well-documented process of peer review of all contributions. This includes the debates section contributions we received from [shack-dwellers’ movement] Abahlali baseMjondolo, as well as that of Mdlalose, the piece that triggered this public debate.
Readers who are interested in this particular debate, published in Politikon, can visit the website at tandfonline.com/cpsa.
Anyone who wishes to contribute to the debate is welcome to do so. The journal has indicated that the debate is not closed.
I can be emailed at this address [email protected]. – Joleen Steyn Kotze, editor-in-chief, Politikon