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| Bringing you all the latest trends and developments |
| Saturday | Aug 11, 2007 |
The grassroots and other community media have secured strong representation on South Africa's powerful new Press Council.
The Press Council manages the restructured Press Ombudsman and Press Appeals Panel, and will play a proactive role in improving reporting standards, monitoring media ethics, and campaigning for a free and independent press.
The Association of Independent Publishers (AIP) and Forum of Community Journalists (FCJ) were each granted a statutory seat and full voting rights when the 11 member Council was launched in Johannesburg on 03 August 2007.
Other media industry bodies represented on the Council include the Newspaper Association of SA (NASA), the Magazine Publishers Association of SA (MPASA), and the SA National Editors' Forum (SANEF).
The five remaining Council seats were for the first time allocated to representatives of the general public, who were appointed following a public consultation and nomination process chaired by Appeals Court Judge Ralph Zulman.
Veteran editor and press freedom activist Raymond Louw was elected as the Council's first chairman, while Cape Town-based banker Bewyn Petersen was elected deputy chair.
The new Council formally adopted the revised SA Press Code, which includes new sections dealing with child pornography and hate speech, before ratifying the appointment of award-winning journalist Joe Thloloe as the new Ombudsman.
Thloloe has worked as a journalist since 1961, and is a former editor-in-chief of SABC TV news and former Sowetan deputy editor. He was made a Nieman Fellow in 1998, served on the Human Rights Commission that investigated racism in the media, and previously worked at The World, the Rand Daily Mail, Golden City Post and Drum magazine.
Thloloe has also won awards for courage and integrity in journalism, and has been an outspoken critic of tabloid-style sensationalism.
He succeeds Ed Linington, a former editor of Sapa, who served as ombudsman for 10 years and who helped establish the concept of a self regulated press in South Africa.
"The old Press Ombudsman was effective but did not have any public representation. This new, larger, and more powerful Press Council does -- for the time giving the general public a say on press accountability," said Linington.
"The inclusion of the public strengthens and raises the profile of the Council, which through the new revised Press Code, has the duty to promote adherence to the highest standards of reporting."
The old Press Appeals Panel, which hears appeals against Ombudsman rulings, has also been strengthened to include wider representation from the public and from media law specialists. Judge Zulman, who is due to retire from the Supreme Court of Appeal in Bloemfontein, was appointed the new chairperson of the Appeal Panel, replacing Judge Edwin King.
The Press Council representatives are:
* Karin Espag (Forum for Community Journalist),
* Justin Arenstein (Association of Independent Publishers),
* Raymond Louw (SA National Editors' Forum),
* Amina Frense (SA National Editors' Forum),
* Peter Sullivan (Newspaper Association of SA),
* Silke Frierich (Magazines Publishers Association),
* Francina Elizabeth du Bruyn,
* Kenneth Sililo Mubu,
* Lindsay Clowes,
* Sibonsa Zaba Nyatikazi,
* Bewyn Petersen.
The members of the Press Appeals Panel are:
* Ethel Lefentse Manyaka,
* Nomveliso Ntanjana,
* Brian Gibson,
* Ronnie Taurog,
* Simon Mantell,
* Lizeka Mda,
* Neville Woudberg,
* Franz Kruger,
* Peter Mann, and
* Gerda Kruger. |
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