The crucial role of the press in any democracy can never be understated. The South African press has an ethical and professional obligation to report and reflect the state of our country in a fair and balanced way to the consumers of their craft – the people of South Africa.

Looking back at South Africa’s painful history of apartheid, courageous media platforms went against the grain and endangered not only their platforms but the lives of their journalists to expose the brutality of the system.

Titles like the Rand Daily Mail made it their mission to expose the apartheid government’s scandals and contended with heavy state censorship, but persevered nonetheless.

The likes of Benjamin Pogrund who reported on the Sharpeville Massacre for the Rand Daily Mail and veterans such as Percy Qoboza who fearlessly reported on the horrors of apartheid in South African townships are but some of the founders and fighters of a free press in our country. The foundation has been laid, paved and paid for by many who have come before.

In order to ensure that the sacrifices of those who were pioneers and activists for a free press – even before it was easy and fashionable to do so – our news media needs to constantly hold itself accountable and remind one another of the importance of their work.

The past decade has been instructive for many of us who work with the media in South Africa, not only as communicators but as consumers of their work.

While there are real and urgent realities of shrinking newsrooms, the global need to be the first, the immediacy of a digital age, there has also been an incredibly worrying and devastating trend of poor-quality journalism, distorted news and deeply entrenched biases.

A strong and independent media is fundamental to any functioning democracy. But what is the impact of the converse?

Examples of poor journalism can be identified easily.

A recent example which made me weep with worry was when a couple of online platforms reported that both Helen Zille and James Selfe failed to make it on to the DA’s lists to Parliament and the provincial legislature. Now, the lists had been made available on the party’s website and a press conference was held by Selfe explaining the process that was followed and the candidates who were electable.

The truth is that Selfe was in fact on the party’s list; something a simple search would have aided with establishing this. Zille is serving her last term as the DA’s Premier of the Western Cape, so she is not running as a candidate on any of the lists.

For many, this may be laughable, but for the consumers of these online platforms, this is complete disinformation being peddled by credible news sources. In addition, the party concerned suffers brand damage from this habit which will often go uncorrected.

Far more broadly is the rapid decline of Africa’s biggest Sunday paper, the Sunday Times.

This is one of the oldest and most established papers which was founded over 100 years ago. However, the paper has found itself in the most precarious position which is something that should worry us all. The Sunday Times Editor, Bongani Siqoko, had to admit to what many had suspected. Something had gone wrong in the collection of information and reporting of several top stories between 2011 and 2014. He acceded to the paper having been manipulated by sources that had ulterior motives, an admission that threatens the very foundation of an independent media.

Articles in the Sunday Times around the alleged Cato Manor death squad, Zimbabwe renditions, and the South African Revenue Services’ “rogue unit”, were later proven to be not factual, leading to the alleged firing of investigative journalists Mzilikazi wa Afrika and Stephan Hofstatter. We can only hope that key lessons were learnt by the paper from this episode and that more is done to restore the credibility of this media house going forward.

Once again, the integrity of the information we often find on the pages of our newspapers and timeline feeds is becoming increasingly questionable.

Disinformation is a certain type of fake news which is often difficult to identify. Another seemingly harmless incident took place in 2018. An Eye Witness News reporter attended a DA rally and quoted Mmusi Maimane as having said that people call him “Mini Mandela”. The journalist either recklessly or maliciously left out the full quote which would have given the necessary context. Maimane was narrating how people often label him as a sell-out as some had labelled former President Nelson Mandela as a sell-out too.

This blew up online and eventually seeped into mainstream media, leading to the Sunday Times awarding Maimane Mampara of the Week. This is, once again, damaging reporting which goes unchallenged and is a massive disservice not just to people who are the subject of said stories but the consumers of this news.

There also seems to be a very concerning trend in this space where journalists are tempted to, and often do, pick winners and losers in politics.

Consistently over the years, we have seen the South African press become active participants in a political popularity contest. This is not simply harmless fondness of some political leaders over others. It entrenches deep bias in the newsrooms and creates a culture of making the personal views of journalists the news instead of an objective reflection of the actual events unfolding.

There have been glaring examples of this in recent years.

Following what is being termed as the disastrous “Zuma Years”, the media played a key role in creating the notion that there is a “good” ANC and a “bad ANC”. Whether this was tacit or deliberate is something only truthful reflection and introspection can confirm.

People like Pravin Gordhan, Vincent Smith, David Makhura, Parks Tau, Ayanda Dlodlo and indeed Cyril Ramaphosa have been touted as being part of some good faction of the ANC. They were labelled as people who had to painfully contend with Zuma and his associates as though they have not been active role players in propping up a president who presided over the worst years in democratic South Africa.

We all watched in awe as some corners of the South African media tried to desperately draw the salvageable parts of an organisation that long gave up on serving.

President Ramaphosa’s internal ANC election campaign was yet another example of where a fundamental line was crossed. The CR17 campaign dominated every single news outlet. It became the subject of opinion pieces, radio discussions and TV channels. No one can dispute that this moment was newsworthy and thus necessitated discussion and analysis. Equally, no one can dispute how large sections of our media propped up this campaign. They propelled it. They did so without enough interrogation about what will really change for ordinary people in South Africa, considering that the composition of the ANC leadership and Cabinet virtually remained the same.

This interrogation was crucial for the consumers of these platforms but it was recklessly omitted. Ultimately, over 50% of South Africans were still poor, almost 10 million people were unemployed, millions of people were still unsafe in the communities and children continued to drown in pit toilets. Nothing has changed for South Africa. The ANC has simply played musical chairs.

These problems in the South African media are not insurmountable. They can be fixed by a relentless commitment to fairness, brutal introspection and considerable investment in developing journalists in newsrooms.

However, the DA, unlike our opponents such as the EFF and the ANC, will never lose sight of our role in protecting the independent media. We will continue to advocate for an independent and impartial press. It is not because we cannot simply throw our collective toys when we are dissatisfied with how news is being portrayed, it is because we understand the fundamental value of the fourth estate.

Just this week, Deputy Secretary-General of the ANC, Jessie Duarte, launched a vitriolic attack on a journalist covering an ANC press conference because she refused to be asked tough questions. Duarte is a serial abuser of the press which speaks to a broader culture within the ANC.

As we head towards Election Day, it is key that the South African media has a moment of collective reflection about their function in this crucial process. Equally, parties like the EFF and the ANC need to understand that the media is there to hold all political players to account without fear or favour. Media freedom is not a “nice-to-have” but forms the very bedrock of our democracy. Indeed, the stakes could not be higher for us all in the next five weeks. DM