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South African Code of Ethics and Conduct

Diversity and Ethics (2)

Further Allegations Against Journalists At Zondo Commission Deeply Concerning – Sanef

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Judge Raymond Zondo head of the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture.

The South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) has noted on 1st October 2019 the testimony of Colonel Kobus Roelofse at the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture and the further allegations from whistleblower Colonel Naidoo. Naidoo told the Inquiry yesterday that several journalists including senior journalist at Tiso Blackstar, Ranjeni Munusamy received financial benefits from Crime Intelligence.

SANEF notes the problems that have been created by Col Naidoo’s mention of the fact that “journalists have been paid” without mentioning names. We believe that it is essential that the names are revealed and that the journalists implicated are given the space to respond.

We note that the Press Council Code is clear that “paid for” also called “brown envelope journalism” is completely unacceptable.

Section 2 of the Code deals with “Independence and Conflicts of Interest”. The Code states that:

The media shall:

2.1 not allow commercial, political, personal or other non-professional considerations to influence reporting, and avoid conflicts of interest as well as practices that could lead readers to doubt the media’s independence and professionalism;

2.2 not accept any benefit which may influence coverage;

2.3 indicate clearly when an outside organization has contributed to the cost of newsgathering; and

2.4 keep editorial material clearly distinct from advertising and sponsored events.

SANEF champions ethical journalism. If anyone has any evidence of unethical journalism – including the very serious breach of accepting funds for journalism – we encourage them to go to the Press Council.

Further, we have launched our own independent Inquiry into Media Credibility and Ethics, chaired by retired Judge Kathleen Satchwell. We encourage any South African with evidence of journalists acting unethically or illegally to approach Judge Satchwell and the authorities, including the Zondo Commission. Please send submissions to – [email protected].

In terms of Munusamy, we again welcome the decision by Tiso Blackstar to grant her special leave. We note Munusamy’s strong denial of any wrongdoing, her detailed affidavit explaining the circumstances of her car repayments and related issues and her promise to cooperate fully with the Zondo Commission. We await the outcome of the Commission’s hearings and Tiso Blackstar’s internal investigation.

For more information please contact:

  • Mahlatse Mahlase – SANEF Chairperson 083 399-2852
  • Judy Sandison – SANEF Media Freedom Committee 082 571-3334
  • Kate Skinner – SANEF Executive Director 082 926 6404
Safety & Wellness

SANEF Condemns Death Threats of Journalists & Unprofessional Behaviour of a Journalist

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The South African National Editors Forum (SANEF) wishes to strongly condemn on 11 September 2019 the escalating harassment and abuse of journalists in the country.

SANEF has learnt with sadness of an incident on Tuesday where Journalists Alex Mitchley of News24, Hanti Otto of Netwerk24 and Pule Letshwiti from etv were approached and threatened by a state witness in the Nicholas Ninow case.

Ninow is the man who pleaded guilty on Tuesday to raping a seven-year-old at a Dros restaurant last year. He pleaded guilty to rape, possession of drugs and defeating the ends of justice — but pleaded not guilty to assault.

According to Mitchley, the witness approached the journalists very angrily outside the Gauteng High Court in Pretoria on Tuesday during a tea break, asking why media houses named him.  It was explained that there was no court order not to name the witness as he testified in an open court. He then looked at the journalists and said, in Afrikaans, that he was going to slit their throats even making a throat-slitting gesture with his thumb while smiling and laughing.

“I told him to leave us alone and would inform the court of his threats. He tried following to apologize but I told him to get away from me as he had just threatened our lives,” Mitchley said.

The witness came to court to confront journalists as he finished testifying on Monday.

The harassment of journalists, not just by authorities and politicians, but lately general members of the public in protest areas, is a phenomenon that has prompted growing concerns for SANEF in recent months.

SANEF notes that while retaliation for the content of professional output is common to all journalists, female journalists face an additional burden in that they are also attacked purely based on their gender.

SANEF wishes to caution against impunity for threats of any nature and crimes against the media because it fuels and perpetuates the cycle of violence and the resulting self-censorship deprives society of information and further affects press freedom. It also directly impacts the United Nations’ human rights-based efforts to promote peace, security, and sustainable development.

On Economic Freedom Front (EFF) leader Julius Malema

SANEF also notes the raging debate on the matter of 702 journalists, Barry Bateman, and his uttering of an unsavoury word in public allegedly aimed at EFF leader Julius Malema. SANEF notes the concerns raised by the supporters of the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF). We also note that employer Prime Media has apologised and has launched an investigation into the matter.

SANEF does not condone the unprofessional behaviour on the part of any journalist. However, we believe this should not be used as an excuse to trigger an all-out attack on the media and journalists as a collective. Rather than a verdict being debated on social media, we ask that this matter be dealt with via the media house concerned.

For more information please contact:

  • Sam Mkokeli – SANEF Media Freedom Chairperson, 082 084 2051
  • Mary Papayya – SANEF Media Freedom 082 379 4957
  • Kate Skinner – SANEF Executive Director 082 926 6404
Diversity and Ethics (2)

Credibility of Journalism

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Full View Anchor Tsepiso Makwetla dealt with some of the issues discussed at the “credibility of Journalism” panel discussion at the Goethe Institute.

Over the last decade, the face of journalism has changed in significant and dramatic ways. Newsrooms have become smaller, digital media has become the first port of call for keeping up with the latest stories and the rise of dis and misinformation poses potentially the greatest threat to media credibility and our democracy.

In the panel,  the Independent Inquiry into Media Credibility and Ethics led by retired judge Kathleen Satchwell, was represented by commissioner Nikiwe Bikitsha. Ms Bikitsha is a panellist in the Inquiry together with Rich Mkhondo. Listen to her views about the purpose of the inquiry and why it is essential to the country’s state of the credibility of journalism could be taken forward.

Please find the terms of reference of the Inquiry here.

Read SANEF’s submission to the Inquiry here:

Cases

SANEF vs EFF Court Papers

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The South African National Editors’ Forum has today (August 13, 2019), been asked to make its court papers on this matter available.

Please find attached here:

The original Sanef court papers:

https://sanef.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Part-1.pdf

https://sanef.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Part-2.pdf

https://sanef.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/Part-3.pdf

The EFF answering papers here:

https://sanef.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/2019.07.03-EFF-Response-Part-1.pdf

https://sanef.org.za/wp-content/uploads/2019/07/2019.07.03-EFF-Response-Part-2.pdf

Annexures to the EFF papers

All SANEF replying affidavits single document

The Media Monitoring Africa MMA’s amicus papers

 

For more information please contact:

  • Mahlatse Mahlase – SANEF Chairperson, 083 399 2852
  • Sam Mkokeli – SANEF Media Freedom Chairperson, 082 084 2051
  • Janet Heard – SANEF Western Cape SANEF Convenor, 0780419528
  • Judy Sandison – SANEF KZN Convenor, 082571 3334
  • Adriaan Basson – SANEF Treasurer, 0825622113
  • Kate Skinner – SANEF Executive Director 082 926 6404
Diversity and Ethics (2)

Code Of Ethics Manual for Journalists

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The Press Council of South Africa has published an easy-to-read Code of Ethics manual for journalists titled Decoding the Code.

“Decoding the Code” is an ethics made easy manual or a “Code of Ethics for dummies” which attempts to simplify decision-making of complex and vexing questions of what to or not to publish under deadline pressures. It is immensely useful and a must for every newsroom.” Writes Mathatha Tsedu, former Sanef executive director who wrote the Foreword in the manual.

Mr Tsedu says there is hardly anything that anyone can do without influencing somebody else; there is nothing that a journalist can do in her or his line of duty without affecting somebody. Journalists should fully understand and appreciate just how much power they have.

That everything they do in their professional lives influences people. That this influence can sometimes make or break a person. And that this places a huge responsibility on everybody concerned.

A Code of Ethics and Conduct is the first and most important way of regulating the press and online media (“the media”, for the purpose of this exercise).

“Editors and journalists often ask me for advice prior to publication. My first question always is: What does the Code of Ethics and Conduct say? In most cases, the answer to this question solves the problem,” writes Mr Tsedu.

Johan Retief, former Ombudsman and author of the document, says: “A Code of Ethics is an ethical compass without which the media are all at sea.”

This document is a discussion of the latest South African Code of Ethics and Conduct, section by section and sentence by sentence, explaining why the issues contained in them are important and illustrating the principles and consequences involved – in the hope that this would provide basic guidelines to journalists for acting ethically at all times.

There are examples of actual cases presented in boxes in this interactive version of the booklet published by the Press Council of South Africa.

Diversity and Ethics (2)

Fresh Vigilance Is Needed To Protect Media Freedom Across Africa

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With the permission of  The Conversation Africa, we republish this article written by Jeff Conroy-Krutz, from Michigan State University and published on August 4, 2019.

One of the least enviable tasks of journalists in the US must be reporting on how the public trusts their work less and less. A 2018 study found that only about four in ten Americans had at least a “fair” amount of trust in the media. Also, in a June 2019 survey, a full third of respondents agreed with President Donald Trump that the news media are “the enemy of the people.”

The US isn’t unique in this respect. A study last year by the Reuters Institute and Oxford University found that, across 37 countries, trust in the media stood at only 44%. Countries that had particularly abysmal scores included Hungary, Greece and South Korea. And in Africa, new data suggests citizens’ support for press freedoms is in sharp decline.

This news isn’t just bad for journalists’ self-esteem. Erosion in public confidence in the media could embolden leaders with autocratic tendencies. It could also provoke violence against journalists, limits on freedoms of expression, and an undermining of democracy more broadly.

Declining support for free media

Afrobarometer, an independent African research network, has been tracking African citizens’ attitudes on political, economic, and social issues since 1999. Its latest round of surveys, conducted between 2016 and 2018, included more than 45,000 respondents in 34 countries.

Most say they support democracy. But there are indications that confidence in institutions like elections and the media might be declining.

In surveys conducted between 2011 and 2013, a majority (56%) of people interviewed in 31 countries supported the media’s right to publish any views and ideas without government control. Only 39% said the government should have the “right to prevent the media from publishing things that it considers harmful to society”.

But in the intervening years, support for media freedoms has declined sharply. The most recent survey showed that only 46% supported press freedoms; 49% favoured some government censorship.

This marks the first time that Afrobarometer has found government restrictions to be more popular than media freedoms.

These declines are not limited to a few countries. Echoing trends elsewhere in the world, nearly every country in Africa has seen sharp declines in support for press freedom in the last decade. The biggest drops were in Tunisia (-21 points), Uganda (-21), Cabo Verde (-27), and Tanzania (-33).

These responses suggest that people are reacting to many of the same changes in media environments that are causing disenchantment around the globe. These include increasingly partisan outlets, social media that facilitate the spread of hate speech and “fake news”, and politicians who find it increasingly easy to downplay critical reporting by making reporters themselves targets.

Threats to the free press

Across much of Africa, journalists and other media practitioners are finding it increasingly difficult to work. Governments in Uganda and Tanzania are enforcing new restrictions on media.

In addition, full and partial shutdowns of Internet and social media are becoming increasingly common. In 2019 such shutdowns occurred in Benin, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Ethiopia, Sudan and Zimbabwe. Chadians went without social media for 16 months before services were restored in June 2019. The government of President Idriss Déby, who has been in power since 1990, claimed the shutdown was necessary because some were using the Internet for “malicious purposes.”

Many of these countries have had broader problems with a lack of democratic accountability. But even Ghana, perennially rated as one of the continent’s most democratic countries, has seen serious threats to press freedom recently. In June 2019, two journalists – Emmanuel Ajarfor Abugri and Emmanuel Yeboah Britwum – were arrested, apparently due to their reporting on a powerful government minister.

Why public support for free media matters

Declines in support for press freedoms are concerning. Increased support for government limitations on media doesn’t suggest that there is broad popular sentiment favouring Internet shutdowns, closures of television stations, and violence against journalists. And it does not mean that people in Africa generally support returning to the days of state-run monopolies of broadcast outlets and the heavy-handed censor’s red pen.

But it’s imperative that African leaders are called to account for any encroachments on media freedom. While rhetorical attacks on the press by leaders like Trump, Brazil’s Jair Bolsonaro, the Philippines’ Rodrigo Duterte, and Poland’s Andrezj Duda have received attention for stoking popular vitriol against journalists, these leaders are also taking advantage of deeper and long-evolving declines in popular support for the media.

In some African countries threatening words too often turn into action. Examples include Uganda’s “social media taxes” intended to squelch opposition voices, the teargassing of newsrooms in Zimbabwe, the criminalisation of reporting certain kinds of content in Burkina Faso, and impunity for violence against journalists.

A failure to denounce these actions could – even unwittingly – contribute to dismantling one of the most essential underpinnings of democracy: a free press.