Zuma vs Phumzile over lunch

And both, while extolling the virtues of press freedom, made a point of telling journalists and editors to stick to the facts.

“The African story is not a simple story,” explained Mlambo-Ngcuka. “People have a right to accurate information (and) this remains a murky area. Africa continues to be reduced to a problem.”

She said it was her hope that the media would play a role in overcoming the challenges and obstacles that South Africa and Africa still faced.

“It is our hope that this conference, in reflecting on the media as part of society, will help ensure that the media continues to play a critical role in the elevation of human condition.”

Zuma in particular was at pains to explain that his suing of numerous local media, radio comedians and a cartoonist was not an attack on freedom of the press, but an attempt to get the media to report only on the “facts” and consider the sensitivities and context of the stories they reported on. He asserted that “freedom without a free press is no freedom”.

Said Zuma: “In this conference you have placed a high premium on press freedom, particularly in Africa. This basic precept of democratic systems can never be over-emphasised. Press freedom must however be balanced with responsibilities. This means factual and objective reporting, fairness, respect for human rights and human dignity – in a word ‘responsible' reporting. I also believe the media must be educative about democracy, good values and constitutional rights. The media must help society in promoting these. It must also not allow itself to be used as a tool by political leaders, organisations or governments because once it allows this, it will then lose objectivity and gradually lose credibility.

He belaboured this point: “The media is fortunate to have organisations such as the World Association of Newspapers, various editors' forums around the world, and NGOs to continuously highlight violations of press freedom and to campaign for the rights of journalists. However, ordinary citizens do not have organisations representing them if their rights have been violated by the media. They have little recourse if they are on the receiving end of incorrect or malicious reporting.

“It seems to be a global trend that corrections and apologies for incorrect and false reports are hidden in an obscure place in the newspaper whereas the original reports are boldly displayed. This is certainly unfair and I hope remedies can be found to address this matter. It takes nothing away to apologise when you have made a mistake. In fact if you did so, it earns you respect.”

Mlambo-Ngcuka continued: “In socio-economic development, there is scope for a greater media role in helping access to economic opportunities by carrying more information about how especially the poor can access these prospects. Government struggles significantly in that regard and depends on partnerships.

“Once more, the African story is not a simple story.”

Zuma said it was significant that the congress was held in Africa at this time in the continent's history. “Some of us have a particular interest in the outcome of your deliberations on how to improve the reporting on Africa, which has suffered a great many setbacks as a result of poor, stereotypical and distorted reporting. But times are changing and African journalists themselves are taking on the responsibility to correct false impressions about our continent and to reflect the progress and advancements taking place. Even when there are negative developments, it is better that these are reflected truthfully with all sides of the story presented rather than a distorted view from afar.”

Q&A

During question time, chair of the SA Press Council, Raymond Louw, pointed out to Zuma that anyone who had an issue with the media had recourse with the press ombudsman.

In turn at her lunch, Mlambo-Ngcuka was asked about the high cost of telephony in the country and declared Government to be “embarrassed”.

“We are terribly embarrassed we haven't been able to bring down the cost of telephony as fast we¹d hoped,” she told delegates. “We continue to face challenges, old challenges, new challenges and some challenges we have created ourselves. We have achieved much since the dawn of political freedom more than a decade ago but we do have a long way to go.”

Mlambo-Ngcuka said the government expected to spend R400 billion on infrastructure in the lead-up to the 2010 soccer world cup, much of this on the transportation network.