A public editor?
January 18th, 2009
The SABC should take a look at one of the key recommendations made by the Sunday Times Review Panel: the idea of a Public Editor.
The SABC recently announced that they had appointed their managing editor of television news to be a coplaints officer and liaison with political parties around election coverage. This seems to go no further than letting parties know who to contact when they have an issue.
Much more than this is needed to help build SABC credibility and standing, and reassure the public that the deployed cadres who run news are not just doing their party’s bidding.
For the Sunday Times, our panel debated in some details the models which exist for Public Editors (such as at the New York Times) or Ombuds (such as at the Mail & Guardian). We developed a fresh and expanded model with a dual function: to investigate complaints about accuracy, fairness and other aspects of reporting, and deciding when and how corrections must be made; and to develop a programme of public outreach for the reporters and editors.
The first aspect was designed to ensure that complaints, corrections and mistakes are dealt with systematically and consistently. The second was a recognition that in the days of electronic interactive media and the growth of citizen journalism, there should be two-way communication between readers and the newspaper and they would benefit from a campaign to facilitate and encourage this.
I think the SABC would do well to have both these things as well.
Entry Filed under: Anton Harber, Journalism, Radio, TV
