The war of words between the SABC and the print media, which erupted after the Sunday Times’ controversial reporting on the Health Minister earlier this year, has once again raised issues about the role of journalists in a new democracy. This Tuesday, Special Assignment focuses on the print media in South Africa, questions its diversity and examines the concept of developmental journalism.
“If I look at the newspapers in the morning, it seems that I don’t see myself… I am reading about a white world most times…” These are the words of journalist and columnist Zubeida Jaffer, who believes she speaks for the vast majority out there.
Her words are echoed by residents of an informal settlement at Kliptown in Soweto, the site of the signing of the Freedom Charter in 1955. Residents who live there surrounded by sewerage and squalor, have all but given up on a better life. “The Government says we must wait till 2014 for houses”, says Dumisani Mqwati. He wishes the media would play a greater role in highlighting their plight. “Maybe if someone is killed, they will come fast… maybe if we riot they will come…but if we need them for community things, they don’t come…”
The only journalists they ever see around here are from the tabloid Daily Sun and, unless it’s election time, the only politicians are from the black consciousness movement, AZAPO. AZAPO says its struggles on behalf of the working classes are rarely given time or space in any of the media.
The documentary ‘Pressing Issues” examines the media controversy of the past few months, and features a host of commentators like Prof Guy Berger, Adv Dali Mpofu, Justice Malala and Ronald Suresh Roberts.
‘Pressing Issues’ is directed by Jessica Pitchford.
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