It is a relief that the ANC, SACP, COSATU leadership and to a lesser degree SANCO have finally come to their senses and heeded our clarion call for a media appeals tribunal (aka MAT) to be set up. One is of course not suggesting here that these esteemed leaders were once not in their full senses. I however move from a premise that as delegates at the ANC's 52nd National Conference we had debated and resolved on this issue.
I too, amongst many others, have penned an article; shortly after that conference; wherein I urged and decried why the MAT hadn't been taken seriously as a policy shift considering the continuing and un-abating barrage of not only false but also poorly researched stories by journalists and their editors.
The ANC as a governing party represents the wishes of the majority of the citizens of this country therefore if conference has resolved on a policy imperative and direction, this necessitates that the national executive committee thereof that was elected at conference must ensure that it is implemented; swiftly and without fear of contradiction; as a government policy.
Since the media represents largely the interests of the opposition parties plus minorities, it will always complain. This self serving outcry shouldn't however deter the ANC or its party led government from taking corrective action and/or preventative measures. I am not suggesting that they must regard its members as being the only important policy drivers but I accept that the majority of views must certainly come from this quota.
One is by no means advocating for or promoting a culture wherein government only takes the views of those in the ruling ANC either. One must add further that when deployees take up government office, they do so to serve all citizenry irrespective of that citizen's party allegiance.
Accordingly they must be sensitive to the needs and views of everyone including the minority as well but not at the expense of the majority. Similarly, when journalists and editors assume positions in the various media houses, they must do so with objectivity, ethics and professionalism in their reporting. Perhaps it will help to give some background in terms of why I hold the view and belief that the media personnel and their masters are the lapdogs of the opposition parties.
The duo have conspired and formed an unholy but unwritten coalition that they will work together to not only discredit the ANC but depose it in power. The unsuspecting public can't however be held to ransom by a media fraternity which serves a minute cartel with foreign links.
The media and opposition parties have an agenda that seeks to undermine the electorate by using clandestine ways of reporting. The Independent Group is a prime example of one such foreign owned organisation which doesn't have the interests of South Africans at heart. We have seen how they have tried and fortunately failed dismally in this evil plot since the advent of democracy in this country. Other Naspers owned publications have contrived albeit unsuccessfully in similar vein.
Thankfully South Africans can't be fooled all the time and when it comes to their voting patterns, they stick to the tried and tested. For too long, the media publications of both the afore-mentioned major players, which have a near monopoly between them, have been a law unto themselves. They have been destroying innocent people's lives with impunity and only putting retraction stories of their lies in back pages whereas the initial stories would have been placed on lampposts and front pages.
The toothless and equally useless Press Ombudsman (led by Mr. Joe Thloloe) is not a solution because he can't slap the hand that feeds him. So, no matter how much the media cries foul and laments the impending MAT under the guise that the ANC wants to censor them or limit their freedom, the truth remains that the MAT will eventuate.
Emotional blackmail will come to naught too and all attempts to get the public to be on their side on this one won't work either because they have been hurting the very public in whose so-called interest they claim to publish certain stories whereas they were driven by ulterior motives.
I hold no beef against the media but sometimes one has to really wonder as to why it is that they report so negatively about our country whereas there are plenty exemplary achievements and/or stories to publish.
In closing, I want to state that the media and their handlers are a minority and hence the majority view must always prevail. This is not to be construed as a form of clamping down on media freedom as has mischievously been lobbied by the media know-it-alls.
I thus want to urge all delegates to the ANC's upcoming National General Congress to be bold enough to emulate and endorse what some of us who participated at the Polokwane conference did and resolve yet again that we desperately need an MAT so that government can finally take heed.
The press; across the width and breadth of the corners of the universe; has been condemned for their misdeeds with recent critics coming in the unlikely form of US president Barack Obama, French president Nicolas Sarkozy and former England Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
I am referring here to three countries whose leaders have read and seen enough yet a short while ago the Fourth estate could do no wrong. They were held in high esteem as is the case in SA until they overstepped the mark hence an urgent need to make them take responsibility for their mischief.
The press has a knack of cutting their noses in order to spite their faces, therefore when the chickens come home to roost we, as the interested and vigilant public, can't take the blame when they are made to suffer the consequences. The proposed MAT should serve as a valuable lesson to any would be transgressor that there are penalties when you are corrupt and collude.
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