» The ANC cared so much, they didn’t turn up

The ANC cared so much, they didn’t turn up

February 18th, 2011

The ANC were notably absent from this week’s Press Council public hearings. Having called for reform of the Council, and having welcomed the Council’s move to open up a public debate, the ANC did not make any submissions and did not even send anyone along to listen. They could not be bothered to show even perfunctory interest.

It is an act of bad faith that calls into question the organisation’s motivations for its attacks on the printed media’s self-regulatory system.

When this debate began, the ANC did not call for change to the Press Council system, nor did they suggest reforms which might improve it. They called instead for an end to self-regulation and the imposition of a statutory appeals tribunal. They were accused of wanting to control the media and contain its freedom to criticise and investigate.

Shunning the Press Council’s debate about how it can improve its operation signals that this is not what the ANC is interested in, and supports the view that it wants control. If it were changes and imprvovements they were looking for, then they would be at the hearings making suggestions and proposals and engaging in debate over alternatives.

Not to even pitch to hear the discussion is an act of chilling arrogance.

Entry Filed under: Anton Harber, Journalism, Media regulation, Print

2 Comments Add your own

1. Robbie Scholtz | February 23rd, 2011 at 4:29 pm

It is always good to have your suspicions confirmed. Viva the free press. Viva the constitution.
2. Adrian Naik | March 6th, 2011 at 7:06 pm

They are really uninterested in it. Just goes to show that they have made their mind up as to what they want in terms of media regulation.

Worrying.

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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)

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“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)