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South Africa’s Media Freedom Day marks the anniversary of a brutal crackdown by the apartheid state against the media and the Black Conscience Movement.
The 1977 assassination of Black Awareness icon Steve Biko in police custody sparked widespread anger and the state responded by shutting down newspapers, banning organizations, and detaining journalists and activists. That was on October 19 of that year, which became known as Black Wednesday.
Since then, South African journalists have used Black Wednesday to draw attention to the importance of press freedom. As the country and the world changed around them, they have highlighted the enduring importance of the most basic of rights: the right of citizens to information.
Over the years, the nature of threats to media freedom has changed. The possibility of naked state repression has receded, at least in South Africa. The recent arrest of Hopewell Chin’ono in Zimbabwe is a stark reminder that journalists in other countries are not so lucky.
But other threats have emerged, some from unexpected directions.
Coronavirus and journalism
This year, the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic are the most important and the media has been among the sectors deeply affected. A new global study by the International Center for Journalists shows the extent of the damage: media organizations have suffered heavy revenue losses and journalists have felt the physical and emotional strain of reporting on a health crisis that also puts them in danger.
South Africa has seen all of these shocks, which affect the ability of journalists to do their jobs and thus damage media freedom. The new Drafting status The Wits Journalism report, which is about to be published, will record the closures, job losses and other devastations suffered in the media.
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In many ways, the COVID-19 crisis has simply exacerbated trends that have been visible for a long time. The traditional media business model was in terminal decline long before the first COVID-19 case was diagnosed in Wuhan, China, in November 2019. As audiences find it easier to get information online, money Advertising has moved from newspapers and other legacy media to giant platforms like Facebook and Google. Studies like the 2018 University of Rhodes report Paying the piper They have shown how the sustainability of the media affects the quality of journalism.
On the positive side, the International Center for Journalists report has found higher levels of trust in journalism since the start of the crisis. Similar findings emerge in the Reuters Institute report. Digital news report . It found that people around the world have relatively high levels of confidence in media coverage of COVID-19, more than double that of social media, video platforms or messaging services.
This is good news, as these have become the purveyors of misinformation and misinformation, often called fake news. Difficulties in differentiating between trusted and unreliable information online have certainly contributed significantly to the overall decline in public trust in journalism.
This is perhaps the most profound threat to media freedom that journalism faces. The relationship of trust between the media and their audiences is fundamental to the very idea of journalism: it really has little value to report that it is not believed.
Unfortunately, journalists have scored too many own goals.
Journalism’s own objectives
New book from veteran journalist Anton Harber, So for the record: behind the headlines in an era of state capture, describes in great detail how a combination of factors led the Sunday Times, the nation’s largest newspaper, to publish a series of stories that he describes as
journalistic fiascos.
These included extensive reports that the South African Revenue Service was running a “rogue unit”, which the newspaper later retracted. Factors included manipulation by elements of the state security apparatus, a newsroom devoid of skills due to commercial pressures, and an arrogant newsroom culture that refused to admit mistakes.
Harber also describes the fascinating backstory behind the Guptaleaks, in which a large number of emails provided incontestable evidence of state capture under former President Jacob Zuma. This was undoubtedly a highlight of South African journalism.
More recently, there have been other mistakes that hurt the confidence of the audience. The brief wave of speculation about the possible arrest of the African National Congress secretary general Ace Magashule on corruption charges was seen as a move by Magashule himself to test the waters and mobilize political support. It appears that ruling party politicians and factionalists can still find journalists willing to sell misinformation for political gain.
And there have been other examples, such as cases of victims identified in cases of sexual abuse with political overtones despite clear rules that protect them.
A more complex world
The world has become infinitely more complex for journalists since the 1977 crackdown. They face a collapsing business model that is constantly destroying news organizations’ ability to do painstaking work and a torrent of armed misinformation, working together to undermine public trust.
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These are the new threats to journalism and to media freedom. In response, professionals must focus on their relationship with audiences. In his book Can you trust the media? , journalism professor Charlie Beckett writes:
Trust is a relationship, not a fact.
More than anything, journalists must hold tightly to ethical standards that tell the public that their work is trustworthy and credible. This is what will ensure that reliable journalism stands out from the noise around it.
Franz Krüger does not work, consult, own shares or receive funds from any company or organization that benefits from this article, and he has not disclosed relevant affiliations beyond his academic position.
By Franz Krüger, Associate Professor of Journalism and Director of the Wits Radio Academy, University of the Witwatersrand
