» More on the public editor

More on the public editor

March 19th, 2009

The idea of a public editor for the SABC is gaining traction. Asked to expand on the idea for the Save our SABC campaign, I said the following:

The SABC has to be seen to be independent and fair, and one way to demonstrate this would be the appointment of a Public Editor, a move undertaken by many newspapers around the world in recent years. Public Editors can have two roles: to receive and adjudicate on complaints from the public; and to actively work to improve relationships and interaction with the audience. For the Sunday Times, the recent panel which inquired into their editorial practices and policies recommended that these be combined into one job. The main purpose, however, would be to ensure that complaints can be dealt with quickly and fairly and not by the subject of the complaint. This person also serves as a compliance officer in respect of the broadcaster’s editorial code, and a person to whom journalists can turn to for advice in difficult situations.

Critical questions arise as to the powers and independence of Public Editor. In some cases, this person merely comments and recommends responses to the editor. In others, this person has the power to order corrections, retractions, apologies or disciplinary action. I would suggest the latter would be appropriate for the SABC, and would also suggest that this person be appointed by the board and operate separately from the current editorial structures. All complaints would be directed to his/her office and he/she would run a website dealing with complaints, discussions of contentious issues and recommendations of how to deal with them.

Although there is potential for this person to come into conflict with the editor, a wise editor would see that this can strengthen his or her position considerably, provide a safeguard against errors, and remove the responsibility of making difficult rulings on contentious cases involving one’s staff and colleagues. It is important that there is a clear delineation of responsibilities and powers.

A word of caution: a public editor does not deliver independence and fairness on its own, but it may encourage the emergence of a different culture of accountability among journalists. It provides a quick and effective way to show a commitment to this culture.

Entry Filed under: Anton Harber, Journalism, Media regulation

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Anton Harber: Media

Professor Anton Harber directs the Journalism and Media Studies Programme at Wits University. He is former editor of the Mail & Guardian.
Full bio

Daily newspaper sales, South Africa
(Ave sales Jul-Dec)
1960 - 681 053 (Population 17,3m)
1970 - 723 566 (22m)
1980 - 803 229 (27,5m)
1990 - 1 214 396 (35,2m)
2000 - 1 117 886 (44m)
2006 - 1 600 000 (47,3m)
2011 - 1 310 000 (49m)

(Sources: ABC and nationmaster.com)

“It was pure political theatre. The excited room was filled with government officials, government consultants, quasi-government agencies, politicians and pupils from government schools. As if on cue, the room rang with applause as one education victory after another was claimed. This was, after all, the annual drama in which the minister of basic education appears on stage to announce the Grade 12 National Senior Certificate (NSC) results …” - Educationist Jonathan Jansen, one of the few with the credibility to look critically at this “celebratory orgy of mediocrity”.

“The (Incwala) ceremony is cloaked in secrecy and marks the (Swaziland) king’s return to public life after a period of withdrawal and spiritual contemplation. Among its highlights is a symbolic demonstration by the king of his power and dominance in a process involving his penetration of a black bull … But last year’s selected bull, according to a recent account from a whistle-blowing Incwala initiate, objected strongly, and threw off Africa’s last absolute monarch.” - Some surprises in this (un-bylined) account of Swaziland politics in Southern African Report

“When the Great Zucchini arrived that Saturday morning, Don had no idea who he was. Frankly, he didn’t look like a great anything. He looked like a house painter, Don thought, with some justification. He wears no costume. He was in painter’s pants, a coffee-stained shirt and a two-day growth of beard. He toted his beat-up props in beat-up steamer trunks, with ripped faux leather and broken hinges hanging askew.” - A classic of magazine profiling, by Gene Weingarten of the Washington Post.

Diepsloot (Jonathan Ball, 2011)

Diesploot: Of Frogs and Fractals, a public lecture at the University of Johannesburg, 4 August 2011

Troublemakers - The Best of South Africa’s Investigative Journalism (Jacana, 2101), edited by Anton Harber and Margaret Renn

Introduction - The Troublemakers: An account of the rise of a new wave of investigative journalism in South Africa.

What is Left Unsaid: Reporting the South African HIV Epidemic, edited by Kristin Palitza, Natalie Ridgard, Helen Struthers and Anton Harber (Fanele, 2010)