Thabo Mbeki has accused the print media of a go-slow on affirmative action. Jacquie Golding-Duffy surveys the industry to see if this is true
On a head count, local newspapers have not done particularly well in furthering the cause of affirmative action. With more than 80% of the local media controlled by four players, namely: Times Media Limited, Independent Newspapers Holdings, Perskor and the Nationale Pers, the recruitment of affirmative action candidates to the major conglomerates is slim with few black reporters in the newsroom and even fewer in the higher echelons of the media. Beeld, an afrikaans newspaper owned by Nasionale Pers, has been involved with in-house training of reporters since 1989. The recruiting of affirmative action candidates has been marginally successful with two black candidates in the newsroom, one at Beeld in Johannesburg and another in Cape Town-based Die Burger. But Nasionale Pers claims to have many Afrikaans-speaking `coloureds’ in its ranks at its eastern, northern and western Cape operations, although few are active in the editorial sections. `Although we want to attract more black people, being an afrikaans newspaper makes the task of recruiting black reporters extremely difficult,’ said Nasionale Pers editorial manager Dolf Els, adding that most affirmative action candidates were unable to write in Afrikaans. Beeld personnel head Marga Ley said people recruited by Beeld had to have a minimum three-year diploma or degree. `Only occasionally do we accept people with a matric certificate, but these candidates could be either black or white,’ Ley said. She said there was no clear affirmative action policy with regards to recruiting in the editorial section of the paper, adding that the newspaper did `sort of have a programme that catered for recruits from disadvantaged
Rapport, an afrikaans sunday paper also owned by Nasionale Pers, said it too did not have a specific policy on affirmative action. News editor Herman Jansen said the newspaper did not have any training project in place for journalists.
Independent Newspapers Holdings deputy chief executive Ivan Fallon said the group was placing `emphasis on training all journalists’, but was focusing on potential reporters from disadvantaged backgrounds. `Because we have not got near enough senior black reporters and editors we have embarked on training appropriate candidates,’ Fallon said, adding that newspaper conglomerates could no longer claim there were no good black reporters. Fallon said the Independent group was leading the way in training and appointing affirmative action candidates with, among others, a black editor at the helm of the Cape Times. `Other than that, of the five editors we have got in Natal, three are Indian, and we also have two black deputy editors,’ Fallon said. Newspapers in the Independent group stable include: The Star and The Sunday Independent based in Johannesburg, Pretoria News (Gauteng Newspapers), The Mercury based in Natal (Natal Newspapers) and the Cape Times and Weekend Argus (Cape Newspapers). Times Media Limited finance daily Business Day said it aimed to give locals rather than foreigners preference when it came to journalist job applications, provided candidates had the necessary skills to do the job. Editor Jim Jones said the finance daily received lots of applicants from other African countries, among others,
`It’s in these instances when we tend to seek out South Africans for reporting jobs because they are in tune with the various nuances of the country,’ Jones said. `It’s not so much the issue of affirmative action as it is about giving local South Africans an opportunity to be trained and promoted,’ Jones said. `Many young people taken in have no experience and as a financial daily, we aim to give people a grounding in finance and investment,’ he said, adding that a series of in-house lectures and on-the-job-training together with organised business tours gave reporters an invaluable opportunity to make contacts in the finance world. `Other newspapers are not training finance reporters and some overseas wire services dealing with finance establish themselves locally without any contribution towards training reporters in the financial field,’ Jones said. Business Day has a total of three black reporters out of 17 on its finance side and four out of 16 news reporters. The Mail & Guardian has five black writers, says editor Anton Harber. `We have done more entry-level training in the last 10 years than any of the bigger newspapers. Literally dozens of young journalists have come through our training course and many can be found in successful jobs throughout the industry. We are particularly proud of this. `Unfortunately, the bigger groups have found it easier to pillage our ranks than do their own training — frustrating our attempts to groom a new generation of editorial staff into senior positions. `But we are persisting with our training and with serious attempts to give opportunities to people who have been denied them. The future of the media industry depends on it,’ he said. Gauteng Newspapers’ daily The Star was `revisiting the rank and file’ in a bid to unearth previously ignored affirmative action talent. Managing director Deon du Plessis said the company was `embarking on a whole range of things’, such as `combing the operation for good people’. `We intend carving out career paths for people ranging from the highest to the lowest levels in the company,’ Du Plessis said, adding that the issue of affirmative action was `very much a priority’. No-one at the Independent group, including Gauteng Newspapers, could provide the Mail & Guardian with overall figures on its affirmative action reporters. The Citizen, a daily newspaper owned by Perskor, said it did not have a specific training project for young
Assistant news editor Coen de Villiers said although the newspaper did not have an affirmative action policy, it was `in the middle of interviewing black journalists’. Editor-in-chief Johnny Johnson would not comment on the newspaper’s lack of training and the absence of an affirmative action programme.
Deputy President Thabo Mbeki’s representative, Thami Ntenteni, said affirmative action was a matter close to the hearts of many people, especially those who attended the conference on government communications held in Arniston last year. Some of those who attended the meeting, formed Mbeki’s 10-member task team aimed, among other things, at reassessing South African media in both affirmative action policies and control of the media. `I think those people [who attended the conference] agreed in principle that there was a need in print media to pay attention to affirmative action because black faces are not sufficiently visible in the media,’ Ntenteni said. He added that media was `merely one aspect of the South African picture where past injustices had to be seriously
`The media includes people who form and shape opinions. There is a lack of balance in the country when the majority of opinion-makers happen to be white,’ Ntenteni said. `People cannot run away from the fact that our history in this country is such that we have this big gulf we have to bridge before we can say we speak as one voice.’