MTMSA will today be launching its campaign to radically transform the media industry in South Africa and to specifically target media houses who have shown political bias and racially skewed editorial, reporting and procurement practices.
We have sent the attached letter to the PIC which is a government investment fund and a major shareholder in TMG calling for a full investigation of management at TMG and the TMG group itself. It is incomprehensible that tax-payers money is being spent and invested into a company like TMG that has shown its complete and utter disdain for black journalists and editors within TMG and have used their media platforms to vilify black businessmen, politicians, black owned media houses who are their competition and has presented the South African Government as a failed state.
The fact that the majority of goods and services used by TMG in its day to day operations are procured from white business to the exclusion of black smme's, should be enough reason on its own, for us to demand procurement parity as consumers and boycott their publications until this changes.
We will be forced to call on the South African consumer to boycott the Times Media Groups publications, especially the Sunday Times, if MTMSA's request is not responded to until transformation occurs within the group and the TMG Group engages MTMSA and agrees to its demands for transformation.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of democracy in South Africa and we cannot stand by and watch our hard won freedoms be gradually eroded by a 4th estate bent on using their media platforms on the reestablishment of white dominance in South Africa.
We will be running online social media campaigns and will be demonstrating and marching to the TMG offices where we will hand over a memorandum to the group executives with a list of our demands in the next two weeks.
Wesley Douglas
MTMSA Convener
Text of the letter:
TO: PIC
FROM: MTMSA
10th February 2014
RE: CALL FOR INVESTIGATION INTO TIMES MEDIA GROUP TRANSFROMATION IRREGULARITIES
To whom it may concern
The Movement for Transformation of the Media in South Africa was started so as to address the lack of transformation in South Africa's fourth estate. After nearly 20 years of democracy, we see that the media remains untransformed and have taken it upon themselves to become initiators and participators of political and social change rather than independent commentators and reporters thereof.
We have seen a concerted effort by the largely white-owned and run media houses, in this case specifically the Times Media Group, to discredit black business and political leaders in South Africa while at the same time ignoring the shortcomings of their white compatriots. Racially biased and skewed negative reporting is the order of the day in publications such as the Sunday Times.
Progressive black business people, who dare to go up against the white establishment and take ownership of established media companies, have found themselves becoming targets of orchestrated smear campaigns. We have heard that TMG has established a slush fund to operate a "dirty tricks department" with the express purpose of targeting it rival media operator Independent Media South Africa and its owner Dr Iqbal Survé.
As civil society, we hold the buying power in our hands and we are demanding free and fair reporting and true journalistic freedom in South Africa. As tax payers we are appalled that our tax money is being used to support publications that clearly present South Africa as a failed state and that do not uphold the constitutional principles of equality and non-racialism in their business practices.
Not only is the PIC an investor in this racially biased media group, but the government spends millions of tax payers monies, over R600 million to be exact, in advertising government posts, notices, tenders and announcements in the Times Media Group's publications.
We demand the transformation of the Times Media Group so that more black editors, sub-editors, journalists and management staff of colour are appointed to represent the thinking of the black majority of South Africans, rather than the empowered racially advantaged few.
Many black professionals and editors were removed or fired from the TMG with no media attention at all and no cries of an attack on journalistic independence. Yet when a staff member was moved from being the editor of the Cape Times, a black-owned entity, the TMG led a very public attack against the Cape Times owners.
MTMSA will embark on a series of boycotts, demonstrations and actions which will support black ownership of media houses and fight against white media monopolies and cartels - and we are starting with the Times Media Group. We will "name and shame" them by exposing their lack of transformation and will then boycott, lobby for divestment and then white-list them. We cannot sit back as the platforms of traditional and online media is used to usher in a new era of white domination in South Africa.
The media is meant to be independent, non-biased and racially impartial but the reporting in South Africa has grown significantly more antagonistic of black business and politicians in general and more and more supportive of white politicians and business people.
Recently an independent research company, Tenor SA, conducted a media analysis of the political climate in South Africa in the run-up to the last general elections in 2009 and the upcoming general elections this year. Their findings are clear and statistically proven, that across the board reporting on the ruling party, the ANC is considerably lower than before while reporting for opposition parties, especially for the DA and the EFF are significantly higher than in the same time period before the previous elections.
The report states: "Almost half the share of coverage is currently going to opposition parties - 47% to be exact. This is a huge jump from the 28% of media coverage the opposition managed to secure in the run-up to the last general elections." It goes on to say that between 1 January and 31 December 2008, the ANC enjoyed a 72% media presence, compared to the Democratic Alliance's 12%, the then newly formed Congress of the People's (Cope) 8%, and the remainder of opposition parties having the share the last 8%.
But now - between 1 January and 31 December 2013, the ANC has to be content with a 53% media presence, while the DA is up to 31% and Julius Malema's recently formed party the EFF is enjoying 4% of the media presence pie. Other opposition parties share the remaining 12%. "A dominant political presence in the media running up to elections is key in order to remain relevant," says the Media Tenor SA study.
What is even more concerning is that the Times Media Group and other media houses have taken a much more negative tone with the ANC and the national government in its reporting than during or before the previous elections. While this is an objective statement it is clear that there is an effort to discredit government with no fair and balanced reporting taking place.
There is also no place for accountability to take place and while it is admirable to think that the fourth estate is capable of self policing and are somehow above reproach, the truth is that they have moved from being commentators to actively promoting anti-government and pro opposition propaganda. Journalistic independence in South Africa is a farce and there is no legislation, no body, not even the MDDSA, who have the teeth to do anything about it. We as civil society have said enough is enough. Our political and journalistic freedoms were too hard fought for to be taken away again through the abuse of power by those very journalists and editors and media house owners who are entrusted to inform us, educate us and tell us the truth independently and neutrally.
It is clear that there is a direct attempt by media houses to affect the outcome of the provincial and national elections by using the platform they have in addressing the masses.
We are calling for an investigation by the PIC into transformation irregularities in the Times Media Group in the following areas:
Racial salary parity for journalists: What are the statistics and disparities between salary scales of similar level staff that are from different ethnic backgrounds? What are their plans regarding remedying disparities with a timeframe?
Ownership: What is their current ownership structure and what is being done to ensure transformation at an ownership level, first to comply with BBEEE standards and secondly to ensure meaningful transformative ownership.
Procurement parity: What is the percentage of direct procurement of goods and services from black business by the media houses versus white businesses? What are their plans regarding remedying disparities with a timeframe?
Employment equity plan: What does their employment equity plan look like, what are their stats per title and division, with an emphasis on performance appraisals of black staff and talent management to fast track black talent for management within the group?
BBEEE status. What is their BBEEE status and track record for the past five to 10 years and how they plan to address shortcomings.
Enterprise development: The new BBEEE codes demand a high spend on enterprise development for black SMMEs. What is their current and projected budget for enterprise development and have they identified black SMME beneficiaries who will participate in their enterprise development programme.
CSI: We would like to see their contributions and spend on CSI as a business and what their actual spend is when placed up against their targets and what proportion their CSI spend is of their business expenditure versus their profit margins.
Editorial balancing of reporting: Across all the titles, MTMSA feels that there has been unbalanced and heavy-handed reporting with a skewed political and racial perspective by TMG. The perception exists that news and the editorial team have not been free and fair in their reflection of South Africa and often represents South Africa as a failed state rather than one of Africa's strongest democracies with a thriving economy.
As we understand that this is a subjective opinion it does reflect the mood of the people who consume media and we are asking for the PIC, as a major shareholder, to investigate this and play a part in redressing this problem. We will be engaging TMG directly around this issue and ask for a full report from the Press Freedom Commission.
Our research has shown that within the past few years, more than five black editors have been fired from the Times Media Group alone. We have also been receiving information from journalists in the Times Media Group itself stating that they are paid different salaries based on race.
Due to this the MTMSA will not only continue conducting further research on TMG, but also request that they come "clean" with this information. We have decided that in light of the immense amount of black editors and senior journalists that have been fired from TMG, that we will be targeting them, without hesitation, and demanding answers on why they currently have no progressive agenda.
Research has shown that some media houses have a small program in terms of procurement parity and enterprise development, most of them fair very badly when it comes to transformation of ownership with some of the groups scoring a zero in terms of ownership transformation.
It is critical that for South Africa to grow economically, that South Africa empowers it's people, and such racially and politically skewed practices and negative and biased reporting from the various news publications, are no longer be tolerated by the South African public. TMG receives nearly R600 million in revenue from government advertising for their publications - taxpayers' money, the majority of whom are black.
We as civil society want to see radical transformation and will lobby the government to pull its advertising from all publications that do not want transformation on its agenda. We stand for complete transformation of the media, and will not hesitate to name and shame, lobby, boycott media houses who fail to move towards an agenda of transformation.
In conclusion, MTMSA are calling on the PIC and its structures to investigate and act against TMG and the CEO of TMG Andrew Bonamour, who has established a "dirty tricks departement" to discredit his competitors. As MTMSA we will be embarking on a process that will expose the TMG and it will affect the share price badly should we go ahead with our boycotts and demonstrations. It is in the PIC's best interest, as a shareholder to take this letter seriously and engage us on a way forward.
We will be launching a campaign today which includes a boycott against TMG publications and handing over a memorandum to the TMG management demanding radical changes. We trust therefore that your investigation and action in this regard would be swift to minimize the damage our campaign will do to the brand image of TMG and the Sunday Times in particular. We do not wish to hurt or damage the TMG group indefinitely through a protracted public campaign but it seems that without civil action, the industry will remain racially biased and will not regulate itself, and therefore we ask for your cooperation to establish transformative changes as shareholders whilst this campaign kicks off.
King regards
Wesley Douglas
MTMSA Convener
Issued by Wesley Douglas, MTMSA Convenor, February 10 2014
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