“The personal opinions of the editors have no weight in the eyes of the public. What they seek in a newspaper is knowledge of facts, and it is only by altering or distorting those facts that a journalist can contribute to the support of his own views.” – Alexis de Tocqueville (1805-1859)
It might appear contradictory to start an editorial with a declaration as to the irrelevance of editorial opinion. But we do so with relief in the light of some of the latest developments at the Human Rights Commission’s inquiry into racism in the media.
It was, perhaps, to be expected that
the news chiefs of the Independent Group of newspapers should take an unctuous and sycophantic stand on the racism issue.
Successful businessmen tend to be sensitive to the prejudices of the ruling elite and the present proprietor of the Independent Group is nothing if not successful.
His fortune being popularly associated with baked beans, it is also perhaps appropriate that the contribution of his newspaper group to the inquiry should be attended by a certain flatulence. We are nevertheless astonished by the sight of a senior editor in that group calling down the curse of original sin on the heads of the community with which it once so closely identified itself.
The position of the Independent Group seems to be reflected in a submission made by its flagship, The Sunday Independent, the editor of which told the commission:
“… There cannot be a meaningful debate around freedom of expression (and press freedom) in South Africa until the issue of racism has been satisfactorily addressed. There is clearly little future in debating freedom of expression in a society where the dice is still loaded against the majority because of racist attitudes among the economically empowered (white) minority.”
Once issues such as unemployment, the homeless, basic health care and education “have been addressed South Africans need to be exposed to a culture of freedom of expression and how it relates to press freedom and democracy”.
The Sunday Independent also asserted that the media was “the voice of society”. The editor of the newspaper, who was quoted as describing himself as a “racist”, reportedly suggested he was speaking “on behalf of white people”.
Virtually the only one of these statements which is not self-evidently open to challenge is that of the racist perspective of the submission.
The suggestion that the media is the “voice of society” is an arrogant and dangerous nonsense. A newspaper cannot claim to speak for its own staff, much less society, or even a section of it.
What is known as press freedom is nothing more than the freedom of expression enjoyed by the individual, whether peasant, or president … or newspaper editor.
To suggest that press freedom can be somehow delayed is nothing less than an attack on the freedom of expression of the individual and as such an attack on the Constitution.
It is in part in order to facilitate action to tackle the great social issues of the day – such as unemployment, the homeless, basic health care and education – that the Constitution guarantees freedom of expression. Informed debate, which is vital to social reform, is to be discovered in the variety of perspective and opinion, not the limitation of it.
The suggestion that a section of society is intrinsically guilty of racism represents an abandonment of the principles of individual responsibility which underpin modern political thinking.
It is a reversion back to the primitive tenets, such as that of original sin and collective guilt, which have underpinned religious dogmas of the past and can give way so easily to such heresies as the “blood libel” familiar to anti-Semitism.
The Mail & Guardian has warned repeatedly over recent years that those who play the race card are using the same tactics, and are in danger of reaping a similarly bitter harvest, as Senator Joe McCarthy with his notorious anti- communist witch-hunt in the United States during the Cold War.
The term “witch-hunt” is an apt one
with which to describe the process, because they have in common the substitution of reason with unreason and, by way of extension, hysteria and demonisation. In just such a way the unreason which characterises the submission by The Sunday Independent threatens to fuel the hysteria which is beginning to mark the “racism in the media” hearings by way of reckless allegation.
Judging from the growing irrationality surrounding the racism “debate” our latter-day witch-hunters – now including among their number representatives of the so-called “white” commercial farmers, angered by our disclosures of atrocities perpetrated against black labourers, as well as that well-known and “white” crook, Billy Rautenbach, in pursuit of some no-doubt devious agenda – having sought to demonise us with the mindless chant of “racist, racist”, seem to think we are fit for burning.
They should know that the M&G will not be led tamely to that stake.