The South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) takes strong exception to accusations by government spokesperson Jimmy Manyi that editors “censor” government information, deputy chairperson Raymond Louw said on Thursday.
Manyi has given this as a reason for launching a monthly government newspaper with the ultimate aim of turning it into a daily to enable government information to be published.
“Newspapers quite rightly do not see their role as publishers of all information produced by the government. They do, however, take great care to ensure that they publish important information supplied by the government or information about the government and its activities in the public interest”.
Manyi has given no example of “censored” information in his broad generalised accusation against the press,” Louw said in a statement.
“Sanef regards this as a serious omission in light of the important charges he has levelled against newspapers and requests Manyi to supply examples forthwith.”
On Sunday City Press reported that the government’s bi-monthly magazine, Vuk’uzenzele, would be turned into a monthly tabloid newspaper from April. Manyi said he planned to publish the paper fortnightly by March next year.
‘The media is censoring a lot of government information,” Manyi told City Press.
Manyi said the government would be abdicating its responsibility if it allowed editors of commercial newspapers to decide which government information was published. He said journalists came to government news conferences, where 10 issues were raised, but only wrote about one.
The paper would be edited by former Beeld journalist Tyrone Seale, currently managing editor of Vuk’uzenzele and the Government Communication and Information Systems (GCIS) chief director of content and writing.
The GCIS had issued a tender for the newspaper, which would initially be a 16-page to 20-page tabloid with a print run of between 1,7-million and two million. This would make it the publication with the biggest circulation in the country. It would cost the government more than R1-million to print one edition, according to City Press.
Manyi did not rule out the possibility of turning Vuk’uzenzele into a daily newspaper. He said the commercial media would give the government a reason to turn Vuk’uzenzele into a daily by continuing to ‘censor” government information. Vuk’uzenzele would be free and not compete with the mainstream media, Manyi said. It would be distributed at the government’s Thusong service centres.
‘We want it on the streets, in every township and rural area. It will be bigger than all of you guys put together,” Manyi was quoted saying. — Sapa