Yawn! Warning: Please dont read this if youre easily bored! I really don’t want this drama between myself and Independent Media to run on and on – I’m on holiday with my family anyway and don’t want to take part in media interviews and discussions right now. As it is, I’m uncomfortable with the phenomenon of a journalist becoming the story. But perhaps I should quickly explain a few things. Karima Brown implies on her FB page this morning that the five Supreme Court of Appeal judges who had called the relationship between Zuma and Shaik a “sustained corrupt relationship” and “an overriding corrupt relationship” were wrong because they were influenced by incorrect media reports that Judge Squires had said there was a “generally corrupt” relationship. Really? Five top judges, in a very long and detailed judgment dissecting the Zuma/Shaik relationship, simply did a cut and paste from a newspaper? Even though they used their own words, rather than the misquote? What an insult to the full bench of the second highest court in the country! Karima also says I concocted my defence after the fact, meaning I really did refer to Squires (although I didn’t mention him, nor used the phrase ‘generally corrupt’). I wrote about the misquoting of Squires several times in the past, and about the SCA’s judgment of October 2006. In fact, I wrote 33 pages on Zuma’s legal woes and strategies in my book A Rumour of Spring in a chapter called Jacob the Survivor. I knew very well what I was referring to. But even if Karima had genuinely thought that I made up my defence after the Presidency’s complaint (and I doubt it, because I sent her my explanation immediately after the Presidency’s complaint), the simple fact was that, as I wrote in my column, a judge did in fact call the Zuma/Shaik relationship a corrupt one. There was thus no factual error to correct; no apology to be offered. A last point. Karima and Vukani Mde’s display of ANC clothing at the ANC’s birthday bash wasn’t why I withdrew my column. But, as I said in my letter, that public demonstration of party loyalty explained to me the decision to rush into a “correction” and apology to President Zuma despite the fact that they knew there was no factual error. It was simply the last straw that broke the camels back. I do think it is very wrong of two of SA’s most influential journalists, in charge of several newspapers with many reporters, to advertise their political allegiance in such a way. I find it shocking that the Independent group issued a statement yesterday saying they had no problem with it. No, there is no such thing as a really objective journalist – we all have our convictions, experiences and backgrounds that influence our way of approaching the news and our society. But a professional journalist is always fair and balanced and clearly separates news reporting from opinion and analysis. My columns were not reportage, simply my own subjective opinion accompanied by my name and picture. That is the nature of a column. I can understand if a journalist supports most or all of the ANC’s (or any other party’s) policies and decisions when these correspond with the journalist’s own views. But the line is crossed when a journalist publicly grandstands personal allegiance to a particular political party. That allegiance then also implies loyalty to personalities in leadership, structures, discipline, etc. This influences the ways the journalist experiences political interactions and events and how she/he is approached by and relates to opposition politicians, civil servants and critics. It influences the way in which these senior journalists relate to their own company employees. It makes it harder for journalists so compromised to really speak truth to power. Of course, as Rebecca Davis argued rather simplistically yesterday, Iqbal Surve owns the company and he can do with it what he wants. Sure, but then don’t parade as a professional, independent media group – as the Independent Media Group does. Ok, back to the beach now. I’m bored already, I’m sure you are too.
Posted on: Fri, 16 Jan 2015 11:23:50 +0000
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