Time to tidy-up the news(play)room

Over the past two weeks, South African journalism has been on shaky ground. It just seems that as soon as someone produces an example of fine journalism, someone else has to come and rain on their parade.

The talk of the town at the moment is Eric Miyeni and his controversial ‘necklacing’ column published in The Sowetan this last week. Miyeni charged his pen and set out on a tirade against City Press and Ferial Haffajee. In his column he went on a violent rage aimed at Haffajee and her opinion piece published in the City Press’s exposé of Julius Malema’s trust fund. With little restraint Miyeni called for Haffajee to be necklaced, demonstrating the lack of tolerance for an opinion.

The City Press had given South Africans a fine piece of investigative journalism. On 24 July, the paper pulled out all the stops and gave the story a front page as well as a two-page spread on pages four and five. In the week before the publication went to print, there were advertising spots on the radio for this specific issue of the paper.

This was an example of well executed reporting. The City Press had spent months on the story, gathering information and acquiring sources. It examined every scrap of evidence and every bank statement to create a timeline of events.

The methods used by these journalists seemed to stand in their favour when Judge Colin Lamont dismissed an interdict by the ANC Youth League to stop the story from going to print. However, just as we see South African journalism rise in quality, there is Eric Miyeni to bring it crashing down.

The publishing of Miyeni’s blatantly obvious call for violence is another example of what is wrong with South African journalism. I don’t mean to say that we need to gag all our columnists. There just needs to be degree of self-restraint where journalists recognise there is a line. And in this case there is a clear line between expressing one’s opinion and inciting violence against another human being.

However, we cannot persecute the writer without recognising the roles of other participants. Miyeni’s column not only exhibits the poor standards of the writer, but of the editorial staff as well. Miyeni’s brutal attack on Haffajee had to have been given the all clear from his editors before going to print. Therefore, we cannot only blame Miyeni.

Furthermore, the problem has not only existed in the case of Miyeni and The Sowetan. There have been other incidents where columnists have been given free rein to say whatever they want. David Bullard, Kuli Roberts and Deon Maas are all examples of columns that have been given the boot for showing a lack of restraint.

However, these columnists have not only fallen victim to their words. They have also become the scapegoat for the editorial staff. Each time there is a public outcry, the “heads must roll” approach has been used on a paper’s writers. Could there be a plot against outspoken journalists? Are they being set up to land on their own swords? No matter how one sees it, there is a clear problem in South African newsrooms and it needs to be addressed.