News of the World's end of the road: lessons for SA media?

"Yes, I think we need to look at how the UK government has criticised the UK Complaints Commission, questioning its legitimacy. What this says is that we are not unique in having a system that needs to be strengthened," Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) head William Bird told Bizcommunity.com early today, Monday, 11 July 2011.

"Called for an independent inquiry"

Bird added: "The question is how and what mechanism will have the most credibility for ordinary members of the public? I think it is also worth looking at the fact that the UK government has called for an independent inquiry to the issue, compared to a parliamentary hearing - one from a conservative, pro-capitalist dominated government in the UK, and the other from an outwardly more left-leaning social democratic government."

News of the World, which published its last edition dubbed Thank You & Goodbye yesterday, Sunday, 10 July 2011, is owned by News Corp boss Rupert Murdoch.

Unlike Britain, the practice of phone hacking as an illegal way of collecting information is not a common practice in SA.

Careful not to equate too much

Bird said SA needed to be careful not to equate its situations too much, as its media has not been accused of the things that precipitated the crisis in the UK. "If you look at issues of how the media treats the government in the UK, they are often a lot more critical than ours."

Rhodes University media professor Jane Duncan said: "Although we do have tabloids, there is no indication of wide-scale use of illegal methods of collecting information.

"But one of the reasons that this tabloid culture has been allowed to fester unchecked in Britain is that the Press Complaints Commission in the UK has become a poodle of the publishers and owners, because it is dominated by them.

"Voice of working journalists is weak"

"The PCC members, Murdoch and the government, both Labour and Conservative, are all part of the same political class - hence the tendency to scratch one another's backs (or cover one another's backs), so the voice of working journalists is weak.

"Unions like the National Union of Journalists, which could have checked the decline of ethical standards from within, have been weakened by Rupert Murdochk's union bashing tactics."

Duncan, who has decried the absence of the voice of the working journalist in the newly launched PFC, said one of the useful lessons that can be extrapolated from the NoW (#NOTW) affair is that journalists need to organise to defend the basis of their craft.

"Hold the balance of power"

"These organisations need to adopt and enforce ethical codes for their members. They need to ensure that they hold the balance of power in the Press Council.

"Furthermore, the moral of the story for other countries is 'do not let Rupert Murdoch's empire into your country'; it is a cancer that eats away at ethical journalism."

For more:

For more:


• Bizcommunity: Media-regulation glee club has a new hit show
  
• Bizcommunity: What's so special about the Press Freedom Commission?
  
• Google News Search: "news of the world" press complaints commission
  
• Twitter Search: #NOTW OR "News of the World"

Last updated at 2.19pm on 11 July 2011.
For More list updated at 2.42pm on 11 July 2011.