Hands off eTV

January 18th, 2010

The police are wrong to accuse eTV of promoting criminality or harbouring criminals with their interview of two unidentified men who promised violence and murder during the 2010 World Cup. They are also foolish to subpoena the station.

Police Minister Nathi Mthethwa accused the station of “reckless harbouring of criminals”. He said eTV’s “repeated airing of this footage constitutes gratuitous sensationalism, promotes unlawfulness and creates a climate of fear and hysteria”.

eTV news editor Ben Said said it was e.News’ duty to inform the public, and Mthethwa was shooting the messenger.

I agree with Said. eTV is doing what journalists do: finding ways of alerting the public and the police to issues of criminality and giving them some insight into criminals. It is a public service, and the police need to recognise and allow for this.

eTV would not be able to do this, or other stories involving criminals, if they were forced to arrest people they interview, or set them up for police to arrest them, or identify them. Criminals would stop talking to them, and this would not help the police or anyone else.

Police and journalists work best when they understand, accept and respect each other’s roles. Journalists should examine, expose and explain criminality and highlight threats, such as those made by these criminals. Sometimes this is awkward and embarrassing for the police. But the job of identifying and capturing these guys is the task of the police, and they are wrong to expect journalists to do this for them. If they do, they make impossible the work of journalists and this does not help anyone.

To subpoena journalists and force them to give up evidence is a distraction for police. It will set up a a pointless and fruitless conflict with journalists and waste time and resources that should be dedicated to going after the criminals.

The issue here is the criminals and their threats, not the journalists who draw attention to it.

. eTV is alerting the public and the police to issues of criminality, they are doing what journalists do, and this is a public service that should be recognised and allowed to continue without harassment. Police and journalists operate at their best if they work in parallel and respect their different and important roles. If the authorities force journalists to act as police in catching criminals and naming their sources, then the journalists cannot do their job of reporting effectively and that does not help anyone. By going after the journalists with subpoenas and other threats, police are distracting themselves from their own tasks of chasing criminals. They would do better to recognise the role being placed by journalists in highlighting issues of crime and violence and let them get on with it. Police should focus on chasing real criminals rather than journalists.

Entry Filed under: Anton Harber, Journalism, Media regulation