The lack of journalistic skills in South African newsrooms will come under scrutiny at an indaba hosted by the SA National Editors’ Forum in September.
Sanef said on Thursday that the meeting followed a skills audit of newsrooms, and was aimed at coming up with proposals on how to deal with the situation.
The editors’ body said when it launched the audit last year that there was too much ”superficiality and unprofessionalism” in the South African media, and that this was a discredit to journalism.
Sanef said on Thursday its education and training sub-committee had identified several areas where ”critical interventions” were needed, including poor reporting, interviewing and writing skills; accuracy, commitment, legal knowledge and ethics.
It hoped delegates to the indaba, to be held near Stellenbosch, would include Sanef members, media chief executives and those in charge of training budgets, editors and trainers. – Sapa