It has been well said that South African journalism has been reduced to a wasteland during the apartheid years — censorship and oppression driving some of its brighter talents out of the industry, or out of the country, and Bantu Education doing its best to ensure immediately succeeding generations were ill-qualified to fill the vacuum. It is something of a tragedy therefore to see the Black Editors’ Forum seemingly intent on prolonging the devastation.
One of the more hopeful developments in the local newspaper industry since liberation has been foreign investor interest. The take-over of the Argus Group by the Irish ketchup king, Tony O’Reilly, has brought substantial sums of foreign exchange into the country and has already resulted in the launch of one new title. The Guardian’s investment has enabled the growth of this newspaper. Indications that the Financial Times is taking an interest in Times Media Ltd offers hope that we might see the world’s foremost financial publication bringing its clout, expertise and funds to this country. Why, therefore, the Black Editors’ Forum should suddenly start trying to frighten away geese intent on laying their golden eggs in South Africa is difficult to comprehend. But try they have, this week urging the Constitutional Assembly to limit foreign ownership to 20 percent in the name of press freedom.
The concerns of the forum lie at two levels. The first is that the appearance of the “big money boys” from overseas will shut out local entrepreneurship. This, in turn, leads to the fear that a press will be created — or perpetuated — which is unrepresentative of the population.
The first issue is one of monopoly control and should be dealt with in the context of effective anti-trust laws. In that respect we see no reason to differentiate between the manufacturers of newspapers, or soap powder. Over-concentration of ownership in any sector is undesirable and broad reform is overdue.
The problem of diversity of ownership is of real concern. It will be partly dealt with by market forces. One needs only be in the company of your average South African newspaper editor, panicking at the sight of his falling circulation, to appreciate that there are few industries as sensitive to the judgment of the consumer. Talented editors and journalists who have knowledge of the languages, cultures and life- experiences of the majority of the population are being frantically head-hunted by newspaper managements for the very reason that they are best qualified to understand the demands of the market.
There may be arguments also for the state to consider arm’s-length assistance for new publications which add to the diversity of those available, as happens in Scandinavia. But these are matters of day-to-day policy which do not belong in a new Constitution.
The key to Press freedom is not regulation, but proliferation. The more newspapers there are in a country the freer the press is likely to be. It is for that reason we would suggest that the Black Editors’ Forum in future send their emissaries not to Cape Town, but to foreign lands — to plead with the world’s media moguls to bring their spare cash to our corner of the