The ANC government is in charge of running South Africa and newspapers must report on this. But the press must mirror messages issued by government if they want a share of the state's massive ad budget. This is the new government spin redux delivered by Manyi. Media that don't comply with this edict will be punished where the government thinks it will hurt the most: revenues.
SA editors were understandably outraged after government communication and information system boss, Jimmy Manyi, announced that Cabinet had approved a state communications plan to reward media which put a positive spin on what government was doing. The government communication plan sees the consolidation of an R1 billion advertising budget under GCIS, which means that media buying will now be done internally at GCIS instead of through individual government departments.
SA's media was deeply sceptical when Manyi was appointed to head the GCIS late last year. This latest move seems to validate that scepticism as the real shocker was Manyi's statement that media which mirrored government spin would get more of his budget, and those which didn't, would get less.
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