The Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu) has issued a stinging attack on the role of the media in the tribulations of African National Congress (ANC) president Jacob Zuma.
Cosatu spokesperson Patrick Craven said on Tuesday that without “its lap-dog media”, the National Prosecuting Authority (NPA) could never have convinced public opinion to the extent it did that the steps it was taking against Jacob Zuma were justified.
“A truly independent watchdog media would long ago have exposed the machinations which the judge [Chris Nicholson, in Pietermaritzburg] has now pointed out,” Craven said.
“Objective journalists would have pointed out that the NPA director has no business winning public opinion through off-the-record briefings.”
He said the media should have informed those responsible for public prosecutions that their responsibility is to present their allegations to an independent judge.
“They should have objected when the NPA or Scorpions pushed brown-paper envelopes under their office doors, and said that justice could only be served if they used this information in the courts to convict those allegedly committing crimes,” the trade-union federation said.
“The media should have been aware that a media trial, whilst it may convince many that the targeted person is indeed a criminal, will not in the end convince the majority, who object to this kind of kangaroo court as a matter of principle.
“What an indictment of the South African media that it took a brave judge to expose what they had been keeping hidden! The media cannot plead ignorance of the facts, because Cosatu, and other supporters of the ANC president, have, on many occasions, provided the media with all the facts about the case on which the judge based his verdict.”
Cosatu said that day after day the message came across in the press and on radio and TV that Zuma was guilty of corruption and unfit for public office.
“The objectivity of the media flew through the window. Cartoonists and so-called ‘political analysts’ have had a field day ridiculing, lampooning and insulting the image of the ANC president.
“His lawyers’ entirely legitimate attempts to have charges against him dismissed were presented as mere delaying tactics, one of the many points on which Judge Nicholson set the record straight, pointing out that the delays were primarily the responsibility of the NPA,” Cosatu said.
“Without any evidence to back it up, the media labelled those who came out in defence of Jacob Zuma’s constitutional and legal rights as enemies of constitutional democracy who sought to undermine and violently destroy the judicial system.
“They wilfully misrepresented their justified criticisms of this particular, flawed judicial process as an attack on judicial independence in general, despite numerous speeches and statements by those accused of this to clarify that this was not their position.” — I-Net Bridge