'The Silence of the Shams'

The media can get comment from spokespersons only if those spokespersons do their job properly. They are paid to communicate, so do that - communicate. (Image: Public Domain)

For more:

• The Media Online: 'Spokespinners': The sounds of silence... There are many spokespersons who are diligent... reachable any hour of the day, courteous, and willing to answer questions from the media, and if they don't have the answers, they undertake to get hold of them - and they do. However... each day, writes Ed Herbst inThe Media Online, reporters dutifully note for the record that attempts to reach some of the deployed cadres who masquerade as "spokespersons" have failed because, writes Herbst, the said "cadres have, in a gross dereliction of duty, deliberately made themselves unavailable by switching off their cellphones or ignoring emails" - this despite the fact that, on average, they are paid R50,000 or more a month. Click through to view just a few reported examples of failed communication.

• Mail & Guardian: MultiChoice fined R40,000 for negligence... Mail & Guardian reports MultiChoice has received two fines for running inappropriate promos on DStv.
  It quotes Reuters as reporting that MultiChoice's "airing of promotions that are unsuitable for the channel or the timeslot has been ruled grossly negligent by the BCCSA".

Also read... DStv 'makes kids cry'

MultiChoice might soon face something worse than a fine. It has already had to pay R100,000 in fines in just over 18 months to the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of SA, convicted of exposing youngsters to violent images...

The pay channel must pay another R15,000 before the end of this month - just a few weeks after being fined R25,000 for flighting promos and content deemed harmful to children outside the "adult viewing" period between 8pm and 5am, or for incorrect age classification.

MultiChoice attributed the mistakes to "human error".

In August, Charlene Baptiste was with her eight-year-old niece watching the Disney XD Channel when "scenes of fighting, violence, couples kissing intimately and other unsuitable scenes that no child should see" were shown.

But MultiChoice said the promo did not feature material that would "make sense in the mind of the younger viewer".

In November, Olivia Bornman said that, while watching National Geographic Wild with her children, a promo for the horror TV series The Walking Dead appeared "with gruesome, shocking and frightening pictures" that frightened her children, who are all under the age of seven.

The broadcaster said the promo was "scheduled in error as a result of incorrect information".

The complaints commission's tribunal noted that MultiChoice had given the same excuse for showing inappropriate material outside of the adult-viewing period.

The commission said: "In each case human error was presented by the broadcaster as an excuse for the contravention. In each case a fine was imposed but this does not seem to be a deterrent.

"Considering the importance of our duty to protect children in terms of the code, the tribunal will have to think hard on a sanction that could put a stop to this practice."

Source: The Times, via I-Net Bridge

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