The editor of the station, Zukile Majova, would halt me from going to strike stories with the reasoning that if the station covered all strike stories in the country, it would lose its listeners' attention. Majova would always say to me; “It’s the nature of the beast… if it does not bleed, we should not bother.”

I had a huge grin on my face every time he refused to cover a strike story and it turned out violently. He waited for ‘it’ to bleed first, eventually leading us to report on the after effects of events. The same has been done in other newsrooms, when it came to police brutality during strikes. Bolekaja - Andile Mngxitama - writes in his column in Sowetan, that almost a thousand people a year have been killed in police action since 1994. Shocking numbers that have gone unnoticed throughout the years, based on the limited coverage given on the increasing fatalities by the police.

It reminds me of the 2009 TUT strike in Pretoria: few media houses were bothered by yet another student strike and few pitched up for the showdown. But when disabled student activist, Bob Makgae, was beaten up and shot with rubber bullets by police, every newspaper ran with the story and pictures of him being dragged by police. Suddenly, the strike became serious and media houses wanted to find out who Makgae was, and what the student grievances were. The same can be said about Andries Tatane’s killing during a protest in Ficksburg. His killing put Ficksburg on the map and highlighted the challenges that the community was facing. Some went on to compare Tatane to Steve Biko, who died under police custody.

The SABC broke the story on its primetime news slot, showing disturbing footage of Tatane being beaten up by batons and shot with rubber bullets at close range before he collapsed and died. SABC news editor, Jimi Matthews was reported in theDaily Maverick to have said the Ficksburg strike was put into the news diary like any other strike story in the run-up to the local elections. “Once we saw the footage, we were stunned by it and had no choice but to show it,” he said.

For its part, the state-owned SABC came under fire from the ruling party. ANC spokesman, Jackson Mthembu, released a statement on the party website, stating: “We are equally concerned that the public broadcaster showed such shocking and disturbing images on its prime time news slot with disregard to young viewers and other sensitive people who obviously would have been disturbed to various degrees by such images. We therefore also call upon the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (ICASA) to investigate whether the public broadcaster has not overstepped its mandate in this regard."

It is no surprise then that we are starting to see articles like 'Who Was Andries Tatane' featured in reputable sources such as the Mail & Guardian. Media houses waited for the story to bleed first before they could run with other stories of police brutality. While still digesting the Tatane saga, Jacarandaand other news stations started running with stories of police brutality.

“It’s the nature of the beast, young Malala. Let them bleed first,” Majova said to me all those years ago, and it seems to be a true reflection in the real media industry.

Do you think that the media doing is more reactive to strike stories? Share your thoughts by commenting on our blog.