By Adam Wakefield

Manuel, speaking at the launch of Times Media’s new BusinessLIVE platform in Johannesburg on Thursday, 13 October, began his remarks by noting that the focus of editors over the past few decades has shifted more and more from editorial, to the commercial success of their publications.

“It has also seen editors replace the legendary bottle of whiskey with a bottle of Gaviscon. In an increasing competitive environment with declining print readership, newsrooms have had to create its media space … while enhancing the reach of its news,” the former minister of finance said.

Add to that the expectation of breaking news, investigative journalism, quality reporting and content updates, slippages are to be expected.

“We have seen the battle against the abuse of media owners and media executives, including the ones with nice hats and without matric, advancing narrow agendas,” Manuel told the room.

He contended, as South Africans, we tend to swing the pendulum hard from one side to the other in any debate. You are either for us or against us, never thinking about slowing down the pendulum so we can begin to understand the content, discussions, and journeys in these debates.

“My contention is the nation project is both complex and exceedingly incomplete and at the epicentre is the struggle of national identity,” Manuel said.

Later, after touching on what role the Constitution plays in bridging the country’s past to its future, he said there has been a lack of strong news judgement in many quarters, but preferred to discuss the media’s role in society positively. Doing so however meant picking on the inherent excesses, Manuel said.

One such example is the stories written about the alleged SARS rogue unit. A total of 39 articles ran in one Times Media newspaper over a two year period. In the end, the majority of those stories proved untrue, yet the narrative had been drilled into peoples’ minds to such an extent that they will “forever doubt”.

The allegations have all fallen by the wayside, yet the current minister of finance and others are seemingly being investigated for arbitrary crimes.

“Surely there is something very wrong with what happened here? Who leaked these stories and why? Admittedly, the Sunday Times did apologise but virtually the entire leadership of SARS had left by then,” Manuel said.

“The summons issued to the minister can only be described as reckless. It was a seed planted by multiple screaming headlines. Too little, too late.”

The only recourse available in such instances is the media code of ethics, as court action is costly and slow.

While the Press Code is meant to hold the media and journalists responsible for their actions, the SARS rouge unit stories were only retracted two years later. Surely, in Manuel’s view, the codes should bring some modicum of accountability upon the shoulders of those responsible?

“Too often the media simply reports, often citing anonymous or highly placed sources,” Manuel said, noting how that very morning he got a call from a journalist asking about documents they had received apparently implicating him in some matter. He called it “bizarre”, with the media continuing to lend credibility to unsubstantiated fact, advancing some or other "nefarious agenda".

“Stories like the alleged Cato Manor death squad, the illegal renditions of Zimbabweans, must be cause for self-reflection. It’s easy to allege, it is also easy to get law enforcement agencies to investigate and prove there is merit to the story but to what cost and what end?” Manuel said.

All these matters had something in common. They all had their origins in media reports. When those implicated have gone to court, in the majority of cases, they won.

“Can we see something is seriously wrong in this picture?” Manuel asked.

There is a distinct role for the professional media, but it has to be “expressly more vigilant when those well-packaged envelopes land on their desk”.

*Image courtesy of Times Media.

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