Media must report objectively without bias

The ANC has a clear view as to the relation we want to have with the editors and journalists who report objectively without being biased in favour or against the ANC. We expect journalists to make an effort to balance the stories planted by sources by seeking to get the official response on the matter.

Last week we had an opportunity of engaging with the British media. What was exciting was the depth of understanding of issues by these foreign journalists. It was clear that they read ANC and alliance documents and asks informed questions. The Independent News had a presence there but the way they covered the trip even in South Africa was different. Others chose to report anecdotes instead of the content of engagement.

In South Africa the media is not about accurate information but more about sensation that can sell newspapers. When some journalists get information they don't even bother about attending media briefings.

Positive developments that are acknowledged even by investors do not get reported in detail in South Africa. The performance of our economy in the face of the global financial meltdown is commendable. We reported negative economic growth for three quarters in 2009. We have since reported positive economic growth for two quarters. Both the national treasury and the International Monetary Fund have revised their projections for the year to 2,5% and 3,0 % respectively. Our interest rates are low at 6,5 % and inflation have been reduced to within the range at 5,7% in February and 5,1% in March.

What the media has code named the succession debate is nothing special in the normal circumstances in that in 2012 there will be an elective conference of the ANC. Our media continues to relegate election of leadership to being some form of conspiracy and plotting instead of seeing it as democracy in action. The ANC will not arrange leadership and pretend to have preserved peace in the organisation.

The debate on nationalization has been made a life and death issue in the ANC. The media is refusing to accept that policy processes in the ANC are rigorous. The proposal of this nature is going to be processed by the Economic Transformation Committee, then go to the National General Council in whatever form and then reprocessed in the Policy Conference of the ANC and only after the National Conference will we be able to talk of a policy. We do not understand why the media is refusing to give the ANC space and time to process policy proposals.

The 2010 FIFA World Cup has only been analysed on the basis of South Africa being likely to fail to meet the FIFA requirements. The question of Australia being an alternative host country caught more fire in the South African media. When it became clear that we have met and exceeded the basic requirements of FIFA the media debate switched to the safety or otherwise of the footballer supporters who will visit South Africa.

When we talk to international investors about our country being a safe investment destination because it is stable both economically and politically they appreciate that the country is in the less risky category. Having acquitted ourselves better in the face of the global economic crisis where Europe is still going through the biggest crisis in many decades, there is more confidence on our capacity that is not appreciated by our local media.

We are making good progress in all the manifesto commitments. The structure of the cabinet talks to the commitments we made during the elections, but it has been reported in the South African media as creating jobs for pals. The establishment of the National Planning Commission fulfils the basic elements of improving the state planning capacity. The creation of the Monitoring and Evaluation Ministry has delivered the framework for a performance-based governance and that all the ministers have performance contracts signed with the president must be seen from a positive light. The interventions in both health and education should give us the desired results within the next five years.

These are examples of what we see as positive developments being reported negatively. This is at the centre of the strong feeling that our media is not diverse enough in terms of both ownership and angle of analysis. We prefer the situation in Britain where the media is clearly aligned rather than pretending to be neutral when it is inherently conservative and almost rightwing in the majority of cases.

There is a death of more left voices in the media. Even young journalists believe that to make it one must attack the ANC. Ethics of our journalism leave much to be desired. The few newspapers and magazines that one reads if there is a recommended article do very little beyond insulting the ANC right from the editorial to the line of reporting.

The strongest opposition to the ANC can safely be described as the media as the media props many of the opposition parties up. That is why some of them cannot survive the first storms they go through. But even in obvious cases of weakness the media tend to focus on or even blame the ANC for their weakness. The recent experience is that of witnessing reports about the problems in a particular opposition party as being the legacy of the leaders of that party having their background in the ANC.

Gwede Mantashe is the ANC Secretary General. This article first appeared in ANC Today, the weekly online newsletter of the African National Congress.

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