The bad news headlines may be true but the good news is often overlooked
“Everything we hate about the media today was present at its creation: its corrupt or craven practitioners, its easy manipulation by the powerful, its capacity for propagating lies, its penchant for amplifying rage. Also present was everything we admire and require: factual information, penetrating analysis, probing investigation, truth spoken to power.”
These words by journalist and author Brooke Gladstone came to mind as the story broke about two senior journalists working for one of South Africa’s big media groups who were recently suspended following extortion accusations.
“Media24 has confirmed that it has suspended two senior editorial employees at City Press pending an internal investigation into an alleged transgression of the company’s code of business ethics and conduct and the Press Code,” the group’s chief executive was quoted as saying. The two journalists were placed on suspension after it emerged they allegedly tried to extort money from an individual they were writing a story about.
The South African Police Service defines extortion on its website as a “crime that consists of taking from another (person) some patrimonial or non-patrimonial advantage by intentionally and unlawfully subjecting that person to pressure which induces him or her to submit to the taking”.
Simply put, as a criminal offence extortion involves the demand for money via the use of violence or some other form of victimisation. In the case of media and journalists, this victimisation may take the form of an unfavourable or “hostile” media exposure.
Why is the story of two journalists accused of extortion such an important news incident in the context of the myriad events and incidents worthy of our attention as a nation?
Extortion is a serious national concern already. The construction industry deals with the headache of the so-called “construction mafia” making demands for huge stakes in construction projects. In parts of the country, such as the Western Cape, criminal syndicates run amok demanding “protection fees” from businesses, including from struggling spaza-shop owners.
In other parts of the world, extortion has established itself as a “normal” way of survival (including avoiding media scrutiny) and doing business because of the massive power wielded by criminal groups such as Ndrangheta and Camorra in Italy’s Calabria and Campania, respectively.
The crime of extortion, however, becomes even more worrying when it takes up residence in newsrooms. The primary task of journalists is to report on news events and incidents and provide insights through analysis of these events. Once they become perpetrators of extortion, it’s time for society to be deeply worried.
Corruption in the media is something that many parts of the world, especially developing countries, are grappling with. Media in developing countries are often faced with challenges that include low professional standards, insufficient financial resources, inadequate legal frameworks and poor training.
These factors have the potential to seriously undermine the integrity of the media, leading to significant trust problems between the media and the society that it serves.
There are also external factors such as restrictions on press freedom that can hamper the watchdog role of the media. The challenge lies in striking a workable balance between these internal operational and external regulatory factors in the interests of society’s good.
The big regulatory debate
Regulation is an important policy instrument for governing the media around the world. Given our apartheid past and the negative impact regulation and censorship had on media freedom in this country, we still have deep anxieties about any form of regulation that involves government. This probably explains the coregulation dispensation that we have settled for post-1994.
This is a compromised system that sits somewhere between self-regulation and state regulation. Our system provides no space for government involvement in media regulation and it only provides for the involvement of the public and industry representatives, for instance Press Council of South Africa.
After the ANC’s Polokwane conference in 2007, there were debates around the establishment of a media appeals tribunal as part of attempts to strengthen our regulatory architecture, but there was vehement opposition from various sectors of the public, including the media itself. The ANC’s current discussion policy documents make no explicit mention of a tribunal, but there’s nothing stopping the delegates at the ANC’s conference in December raising the issue as part of deliberations and, ultimately, resolutions.
What is important to highlight is that debates around this issue are continuing given the shortcomings presented by the current regulatory regime, which is explicitly voluntary in nature and involves no government representation.
Unfettered power and abuse
The case of the journalists involved in extortion points to a real danger as we traverse a journey of building robust democratic institutions for our future as a nation. Although there may be no need to sound alarm bells at the moment, we have to be deeply concerned when there are cases of corruption involving this vital pillar of our democratic edifice.
Journalists, and therefore media institutions, wield considerable power in society that ordinary citizens do not have. How sustainable is it to allow the media with so much power in society to get on with its business with no government involvement? Is this current system of co-regulation that is exclusive of any government involvement not carrying in its own belly the poison that will in the future lead to the death of the very institution we wish to shield from government interference?
Not everything that involves government as a partner is evil or a threat to democracy and the current system of regulation that excludes a democratically elected government can contribute to the death of this institution.
The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the Mail & Guardian.