|
Comment given to Independent Newspapers On the surface of things, the adverts put out by the Department of Health appear to be a huge waste of public resources. The Department claims that they approached several newspapers to run the two opinion pieces, but without success, the inference being that they bought space out of frustration. In order for the public to evaluate whether its frustration was justified, the Department needs to spell out which newspapers it approached, how long they waited and what the responses were. The lack of information in this regard plays into the hands of an increasing number of government officials who are attempting to portray the commercial media as a whole as self-serving and censorious of the government's development agenda, in a thinly disguised attempt to cow the media into less critical reporting. I get the impression that the creation of this anti-transformation aura around the commercial media seems to be building up to arguments for greater statutory regulation of the media. In the advert, Thami Mseleku refers to the commercial motives of the Sunday Times, in supposedly violating the right to privacy of Tshabalala-Msimang. It is a fact that the commercial media sell news to make money, and that the race for greater profits may well corrupt news values. It is also a fact that heightened commercialisation of media is fuelling this problem. The impact that commercialisation is having on the public interest nature of the media is a concern to be found in media policy circles internationally. But this argument cannot be applied credibly to the Sunday Times' reporting on the Health Minister. The public interest nature of the reporting on her conduct in the Cape Town Medi-Clinic remains, whether it boosted circulation figures or not. In fact, the argument made by Mseleku that the commercial nature of the Sunday Times nullified their claim to represent the public interest is a dangerous one. Unfortunately, legitimate concerns about heightened media commercialisation are being abused by some government officials, and more recently, SABC management, to attack reporting that is critical of their institutions. It is a self-serving attack, that demonstrates an ignorance of the issues at stake. The Department's use of public funds to criticise the judgement also sends out worrying signals for the independence of the judiciary. If Tshabalala-Msimang had problems with aspects of the judgement, then she should contest the legal coherence of the arguments by appealing the judgement. The judgement seems to be making the argument that even if the Sunday Times's possession of the medical records was illegal, it does not necessarily follow that publication of information from those records is illegal. This is why the judge refused to make a finding on whether the newspaper should have published the initial article, and also refused to allow censorship of future articles. This distinction is a fine one, and if the Department of Health feels that this distinction cannot be sustained, then all the more reason to appeal, rather than to mount a verbal attack on the judiciary whose dignity and impartiality it is duty bound to uphold. If anything represents a 'serious threat..to the rule of law", to use Ramasala's words, it is intemperate attacks on the judiciary by the government. On the reference made to confidential sources by Mseleku. To call on the Sunday Times to assist the SAPS in solving the crime of the theft of Tshabala Msimang's health records is inappropriate. It is not the role of the media to act as investigative extensions of the police. Also, the fact that the Sunday Times may had information that may have been illegally obtained, does not nullify the right of journalists to protect their confidential sources of information. In fact, Mseleku's letter used the Tshabalala-Msimang issue to launch a full-frontal attack on some of the basic tenets of media freedom. One person has commented on this article. 1. ueknjngaud
ueknjngaud, Unregistered vd3g36 <a href="http://kwrgrbxbdfhq.com/">kwrgrbxbdfhq</a>, [url=http://dhhoslusebxj.com/]dhhoslusebxj[/url], [link=http://ntzvflwbqvlp.com/]ntzvflwbqvlp[/link], http://kldiumotclzf.com/ |
