So the question is when does the Media Ombudsman intervene to ensure that journalistic ethics prevail. Karima Brown: Whether it is embarrassment at having repeated an eight-year old mistake, or sheer hubris, that makes du Preez refuse to concede that he can make even the tiniest error, I will never know. But it is indicative of a general absence of self-reflection in our media and a refusal to hold ourselves to the same standards of probity we aggressively demand of others. It seems the notoriously thin skins of our politicians are matched only by those of our journalists and editors. Brown also emphasised that she had defended Du Preezs right to free speech, including his right to spew out deeply racist statements such as this: ‘the debt [Zuma] owed to those who put him in power and his obvious view that he was more of an African chief than the president of a modern democracy led him on a different path. Brown went on to accuse Du Preez letter terminating his relationship with the Independent Media as being absurdly dishonest in painting his decision as one of principle. The only principle at stake here Brown wrote is our principled duty to be accurate, and to own up when weve erred. Its a principle I value, while he clearly does not. Brown concluded her article by suggesting that both Du Preez and those who have supported him were motivated by racism, concluding: ... du Preezs resignation has become a rallying point for the malcontents and closet racists, both in and outside newsrooms and media houses, who resent the acquisition of a significant media asset such as Independent by black owners, and who have at every turn sought to challenge and limit our right to make what changes we see fit inside the group. Ultimately the most disappointing, even shocking, thing about du Preezs public tantrum is a sense of entitlement and superiority so deeply ingrained that he asserts not only his right to an opinion, but claims the right to have his own facts too. What could possibly fuel such hubris?
Posted on: Mon, 19 Jan 2015 07:09:03 +0000