The media could lose the reason for its existence if it loses its ability to speak to people in a language they understand, about experiences they recognise and through stories that they believe to be true, says Herman Wasserman, chairman of the Highway Africa steering committee.
Addressing delegates from various media platforms around the continent at the Highway Africa Conference at Rhodes University last week, he said trust and credibility were at the centre of the relationship between media and society.
In recent years issues of trust and credibility have come under intense scrutiny, not only in South Africa, but internationally.
Prof Wasserman cited examples of the Leveson inquiry in the UK as a stark reminder of how the media could prey on the very public it claimed to serve.
Also, the phone hacking scandal in the UK violated the rights not only of celebrities, but of ordinary people like murdered teenager Milly Dowler and her family. The public was outraged because the media failed to "comfort the afflicted". He said that the media can only claim the moral right to keep the powerful to account if it also turned "that critical gaze upon itself".
That was why in recent years there was a review of the South African Press Council and the Press Freedom Commission, and the Print and Digital Media Transformation Task Team. Although this was not yet completed, the process signalled an important chapter in South Africa’s media history.
Gitobu Imanyara, human rights activist and former MP in Kenya, cited the No Easy Walk to Freedom address by Nelson Mandela in 1953 to the African National Congress’s Transvaal conference: "The oppressed people and the oppressors are at loggerheads. The day of reckoning between the forces of freedom and those of reaction is not far off.
"I have not the slightest doubt that when that day comes truth and justice will prevail. Gone are the days when harsh and wicked laws provided the oppressors with years of peace and quiet."
He said it was a sad commentary that "words written at the height of colonialism can be so apt in describing a continent ruled by Africans themselves".
Mr Imanyara said the culture of intolerance that pervaded the African media landscape had led to Africa’s best trained journalists seeking greener pastures out of the continent.
Meanwhile, the profession of journalism in Africa did not attract economic benefits commensurate with its importance.
Water and Environmental Affairs Minister Edna Molewa, said the African media had an immense role to play in the continent’s development agenda. It should provide a forum for discussion on sustainable development and educate the people "on what little things they could do in their own environments that could make a difference".
She described the conference as a platform for government to sensitise key gate-keepers, the journalists and editors, to educate people across the continent about the effects of climate change.
Written by: Hopewell Radebe
Picture credit: www.business.co.za
- This article was published on Business Day.