{"id":2544,"date":"2011-06-24T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2011-06-24T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/amabhungane.org\/amabhungane\/stories\/overhaul-of-self-regulation-on-the-cards\/"},"modified":"2024-10-07T15:15:01","modified_gmt":"2024-10-07T15:15:01","slug":"overhaul-of-self-regulation-on-the-cards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/overhaul-of-self-regulation-on-the-cards\/","title":{"rendered":"Overhaul of self-regulation on the cards"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">In a clear response to the threat of a statutory media appeals tribunal, the South African National Editors&#8217; Forum (Sanef) is setting up an &#8220;eminent persons&#8217; panel&#8221; to investigate ways to strengthen and reform the print media&#8217;s self-regulation system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Self-regulation is at the heart of the hostility between the print media and the ANC-led government, which wants the media to be &#8220;more accountable&#8221; and to go beyond the apologies it makes for its mistakes. But statutory regulation is generally regarded as having a chilling effect on media freedom.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Sanef has just created a commission to examine international best practice on self-regulation. This commission is setting up an eminent persons&#8217; panel that will probably consist mainly of retired judges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Journalists and politicians will not be on the panel, Sanef chair Mondli Makhanya confirmed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Press ombud Joe Thloloe said this week a report had been compiled following public hearings on media self-regulation that were organised by the Press Council. The report will now be handed over to the constituent associations of the Press Council &#8212; the Newspaper Association of SA, the Magazine Publishers Association, the Association of Independent Publishers, the Forum of Community Journalists and Sanef.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The panel move follows the ANC&#8217;s decision to forge ahead with its policy decision, taken in Polokwane in December 2007, to investigate a statutory media appeals tribunal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It also comes against the backdrop of Parliament&#8217;s processing of the controversial Protection of Information Bill, informally known as the &#8220;Secrecy Bill&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">William Bird, director of Media Monitoring Africa, said this week the regulatory system should be &#8220;affordable, speedy, accessible and fair. We don&#8217;t see how it could work under a tribunal system.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">He said a distinction had to be drawn between a system that corrected the media&#8217;s errors, and regulation and external interference. &#8220;The idea of an eminent persons&#8217; panel may help address the issue of media credibility, which I think we must accept is a huge problem.&#8221;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Media Monitoring Africa made a substantive submission to the Press Council that argued for a self-regulatory system, although it said the present model could be improved. Listing the shortcomings of the current system, it said:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>There was a lack of knowledge both in the media and among the public about the press code and self-regulation;<br><br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>The system for enforcing the ombud&#8217;s decisions was open to question;<br><br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>There were questions about -complainants&#8217; waiver of the right to legal action and the relief granted to successful complainants; and<br><br><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>There were issues relating to procedure and transparency.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Media Monitoring Africa submitted that the procedure used for the appointment of members of the Press Council and the appeals panel &#8220;is insufficient to safeguard the independence of the ombudsman and appeals panel from the media industry they regulate, and raises the possibility of undue influence by the media industry&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">And because press representatives were simply appointed by the constituent associations, &#8220;there are no procedural checks in place to ensure the suitability of these members&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The ANC has expressed particular concern about the ombud&#8217;s lack of &#8220;teeth&#8221;, complaining on numerous occasions that the scale of apologies does not match the media&#8217;s mistakes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Media Monitoring Africa submitted that there was &#8220;force in the argument that the available penalties are at times unsatisfactory in addressing the violation&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">It argued, however, that fines for errors &#8220;tend to be punitive and do not constructively contribute to the development of a responsible media&#8221;.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Fines could be mere annoyances to larger media companies but put smaller newspapers out of business, Media Monitoring Africa said. It argued also that fines resulted in a &#8220;zero sum&#8221; approach because no one benefited from this type of penalty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.amabhungane.co.za\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"2011\/06\/24\/amabhunganelogo2circlesmaller-708.png\" alt=\"\"\/><\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The M&amp;G Centre for Investigative Journalism, supported by M&amp;G Media and the Open Society Foundation for South Africa, produced this story. All views are the centre&#8217;s. <a href=\"http:\/\/www.amabhungane.co.za\">www.amabhungane.co.za<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Sanef is setting up an &#8220;eminent persons&#8217; panel&#8221; to investigate ways to strengthen and reform the print media&#8217;s self-regulation system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":24303,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2544","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-stories"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2544","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2544"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2544\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31404,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2544\/revisions\/31404"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24303"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2544"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2544"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/further.co.za\/amabwp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2544"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}