Global Media: Media Must Admit They Are a Centre of Power Too [opinion]

SURELY not all the people and sectional interests that have come out in support of, or in opposition to, the idea of setting up a media tribunal are driven by snow white motives. This, I suspect, is why the debate has been characterised by scaremongering and fog. What we have here is a clash between the nature of politics and the nature of news, the blurring of the fine line between the two, and how both have the capacity to engage in egregious forms of Orwellian manipulation when the stakes are high enough.

That is why I am not surprised that Polokwane has featured prominently in the reasons given by the African National Congress (ANC) when they explain their appetite for a media tribunal.

 

There is no doubt in my mind that partisan political behaviour afflicted both the warring Zuma and Mbeki camps in the ANC, as well as those sections of the media that were seized by visions of a preferred conclusion to the Polokwane battle for the presidency of the ANC. This partisan political behaviour later became the sub-theme of the battle between the ANC and the Congress of the People.

 

In the media, as a site of political warfare, even political commentators became foot soldiers of factional interests as well as primary definers of political reality.

 

It is for this reason that there are times I refuse to see news as nothing but a social, ideological and political construct. News is not valueless, and because it is value-laden, its character as a political construct has provided some of the backdrop against which the ANC is opportunistically flirting with the idea of a media tribunal.

 

In short, this is partly a battle between two sides with hidden agendas disguised as a defence of media freedom and the public interest on the one hand, and the national interest on the other.

 

The fog will clear only when those on both sides of the debate — who are genuinely interested in freedom — stand up to drown the opportunism of those with hidden agendas.

 

Solutions must come from the middle, and those who are in the middle are among us in the media and the ruling party. It is time for the dwarfs to rise in defence of Snow White.

 

On the other hand, spare a thought for the ANC, because the media tribunal may be one out of only a few things that will not divide ANC delegates at its national general council next month.

 

And this is precisely what scares me. If a show of unity becomes a critical deliverable, this, together with an overly defensive media that suffers from selective perception, might give wings to an idea that should not survive the rigour of democratic ideals.

 

But we must be open to the possibility that sense will prevail at the national general council because the country is faced with challenges much greater than setting up a tribunal for incompetent or malicious journalism. This would be like shooting a mouse with a bazooka, since most of the journalism we have been exposed to since 1994 has been a good advertisement for democracy.

 

But it is not enough for the media to put up a defence. It must also posit an alternative that is based on acknowledging the limitations of its self-regulation architecture. For me, there are several alternatives to choose from:

 

n The ombudsman should be retained, but complainants must be able to seek relief by other means when they are not satisfied with his findings.

 

n The ombudsman must be a journalist or non- journalist with the requisite skills, experience and expertise.

 

n Each newsroom must have an internal mechanism for dealing with complaints.

 

n The involvement of non-journalists must happen at the first point of dealing with complaints.

 

n Punitive measures must include hefty fines that must be paid into a fund established for the promotion of media diversity.

 

Ultimately, we must become critical consumers of news, and journalists must improve their capacity for self-reflection and stop pretending that power resides exclusively in, and is abused only by, the ANC.

 

- Matshiqi is senior research associate with the Centre for Policy Studies

 

- August 13, 2010 by Aubrey Matshiqi

 

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Source: www.businessday.co.za/Articles/Content.aspx (accessed on 16.08.10)