attention
Jacquie Golding-Duffy
THE new umbrella body for editors – the South African National Editors Forum (Sanef) – has quietly being taking strides towards addressing imbalances in the print, broadcasting and radio industries.
Since its inception in October, four working groups have been created to tackle issues which have been identified as “needing urgent attention in the media industry”, says Sanef deputy chair and Sunday Times editor Brian Pottinger.
Sanef comprises representatives from the now-disbanded, mostly white Conference of Editors, the Black Editors Forum and senior journalists from the electronic media, magazine world and journalism educators.
“Sanef was established so that senior media practitioners and educators could speak with authority on matters of concern to the industry – training and corrective action, the promotion of media freedom and media diversity,” says Pottinger.
The forum is currently running a series of government/media workshops in an effort to improve communication between the two parties. A neutral venue is chosen where government officials and journalists can, in a “relaxed environment”, discuss difficulties they experience with one another.
“Often journalists complain about the increasing bureaucracy in government departments with the insistence of officials and their representatives to have faxed questions sent to them. Reporters complain that this is time-consuming, while government departments argue that they do not trust the media enough to have telephone conversations where they can be quoted. All this is healthy when people start talking about it,” says Pottinger.
The Sanef executive has already raised pledges from a number of media organisations to help fund the establishment of a permanent secretariat to assist in administering the various programmes.
The four working groups established by Sanef are:
* The training committee where the government/media workshops are initiated. Efforts are being made by this committee to establish a resource site on the Internet which will act as a noticeboard highlighting vacancies, scholarships and training programmes for journalists.
Rhodes University is setting up the Web site on behalf of Sanef.
This committee is also involved in training the trainers of journalism as many professors and educators of journalism have not operated in a newsroom themselves, says Pottinger. He adds that Sanef is keen to afford trainers the opportunity to work in a newsroom of a national newspaper.
Finally, the committee is involved in the long-term goal of establishing “national standards of excellence” for all journalists, a basic competency level for potential reporters.
* The corrective action committee which is establishing a database of employees in all media. Sanef has approached several media institutions, mainly print stables, in an effort to gauge the number of female and black employees. This, it says, will facilitate its study on whether the media industry is representative of the country.
* The third working group is concentrating on the promotion of media freedom and is drawing up a national charter to preserve freedom of speech. Newly appointed Cape Argus editor Moegsien Williams is involved in this committee.
The group will act as a watchdog, closely monitoring legislation which could possibly impinge on the editorial independence of newspapers and other media bodies.
The Newspaper Press Union and Sanef recently issued a joint statement outlining their support for a robust and independent free press and will establish a Free Press Forum – a permanent body aimed at bringing together all organisations who are committed to maintaining freedom of speech.
Roadshows are planned for all nine provinces in a bid to educate the public on the importance of press freedom.
* The diversity committee is concentrating on development in the alternative media, including community-led ventures within the media industry – from community newspapers to community radio. Enterprise editor-in- chief and Sanef and Black Editors Forum chair Thami Mazwai is involved in this group
The 20-person Sanef Council of Editors will meet next month in Durban to discuss the progress of the committees.