Kenneth Moeng Mokgatlhe
Johannesburg - We often hear how politicians are corrupt. However, nobody is telling the public how journalists are corrupt. Who will guard the guardians? Who will hold journalists accountable?
It is the journalists who are standing before the truth, stopping the truth from being told. It is journalists who are responsible for this visible division in South Africa today. When there is an allegation of wrongdoing about the politician they love or do not love, the same story or event will encompass conflicting facts and later die down.
JOURNALISM has gone to the dogs. The field continues to face challenges threatening its existence due to external factors from the newsroom, such as business and political interests. It does not need a rocket scientist to know that powerful, sometimes corrupt politicians and business people secure the ownership of various media houses in order to control the minds of the people.
As a journalist, I got an opportunity to learn the ins and outs of the industry. I had an opportunity to see hard-working and ethical journalists while I also saw many unethical and corrupt journalists who are colluding with business or politicians in order to get personal favours for their misdeeds.
Indeed, journalism has gone to the dogs. Today we have reporters and editors who are more than prepared to kill in defence of a particular faction within the governing party, the ANC. These journalists are not defending the truth. They are simply securing personal favours from the politicians, ensuring that they advance a certain faction for exchange in personal gain.
When Jacob Zuma was the president of the Republic of South Africa, he deliberately provoked well-established media houses by literally taking food out of their mouths. He helped to establish a controversial Gupta-owned newspaper and television channel. This Gupta-owned media house got more paying advertisements from the government. This meant that old newspapers were not going to get enough revenue to keep their business flowing.
Zuma’s uncalculated move affected his ambition to govern a stable ANC and country. Those newspapers which were no longer getting money through advertisements from the government were at the forefront of “Zuma Must Fall” calls. Zuma made the big mistake of thinking that he may win a war against journalists who wanted to keep their jobs and media owners who did not want to lose their business ventures. I am making this point to strengthen my argument that there is no media house that will criticise the government which feeds it.
One former senior leader of the Democratic Alliance (DA) once asked me why some of my colleagues wanted to be paid for writing stories that were newsworthy. I was, of course, puzzled because that is bribery and should be reported to the relevant law enforcement agency. I started to hear stories on how journalists were extracting money from politicians for writing or not writing stories about certain events which involved them.
When politicians, for example, are caught up in embarrassing or career-threatening events, they go as far as “silencing” the journalist who is pursuing the same story. In most cases, they do not kill the journalist. They make propositions to the journalist, or the journalist makes demands such as money or a governmental post, where they may be hired in the ministry’s communication unit. The industry is in serious tatters and needs to be elevated by people who care to tell the truth to the world, unlike those who are greedy and sees an opportunity to enrich themselves through illicit means.
Although the development of information technology has affected traditional media such as print media, one of the greatest factors which is affecting, especially the readership of various newspapers in South Africa, has been subjective and unbalanced reporting. Some journalists are openly supporting or are loyal to certain politicians, while other journalists are supporting rival politicians. Hence, the journalists are able to criticise the work of fellow journalists in a bid to protect a particular political interest.
Journalists should respect this field because they are important public servants who are there to ensure that we have a working democracy by prioritising fairness, impartiality, and accuracy. Stop serving business and political interests explicitly.
*Mokgatlhe is an independent writer and social commentator