Statement of the ANC on the ruling of the Press Ombudsman and Press Council in favour of Comrade Ace Magashule
27 January 2020
The African National Congress (ANC) welcomes the apology by City Press as published in yesterday's edition (Sunday, 26 January 2020) following the ruling of the Press Ombudsman against City Press and the subsequent upholding of the same ruling by the South African Press Council. The rulings follow a complaint laid by the ANC after a misleading article by City Press published on the 17th of March 2019, under the headline: "Secretary-General Ace Magashule says: We don't need white votes".
The thrust of our argument was that there was no correlation between the screaming headline and the content of the story. The headline falsely claims that Comrade Ace Magashule said that the ANC did not need white votes. More damaging, the article gave a false impression that the Secretary General of the ANC had, in his articulation, abandoned the non-racial character of the movement. It is unfortunate and regrettable that City Press attributed to the Secretary General a statement that he never uttered. We are satisfied that the Secretary General and the ANC have now been vindicated.
The Code of Ethics and Conduct for South African Print and Online Media, enjoins journalists to commit to "the highest standards, to maintain credibility and keep the trust of the public. Among other things this means always striving for truth. I am confident that many newspapers are committed to these noble principles.
The ANC reiterates its commitment to freedom of the press and believe that journalists must continue to do their work courageously and without fear or favour. By holding the powerful to account, the media play a critical role in defending our hard-won freedom and in advancing our constitutional democracy. We must spare neither strength nor effort in upholding and defending the media's right to report without fear or favour. Our young democracy is replete with examples of how the media played their patriotic and watchdog role in defence of the public. It is important that the media should maintain their credibility by being reliable and credible sources of news, and not deviate from their own code of ethics and conduct.
As we welcome the ruling by both the Press Ombudsman and the South African Press Council, we do so with the hope that City Press and the rest of the media will learn from this unfortunate episode and improve its processes in the interest of good and quality journalism.
Issued by Pule Mabe, National Spokesperson, ANC, 27 January 2020
