Labour wrap: Public needs to support freedom of information

Cape Town - Governments and political parties, along with others with vested interests in the system, are trying constantly to corrupt and manipulate the collection and dissemination of information, says Terry Bell in his latest Labour Wrap.

As a result, we are surrounded by a swirl of “lies, innuendo and fear mongering, of bullying, bribery and worse”.

This, says Bell, is a recipe for confusion and bigotry for which the only antidote is information that is as honest and accurate as possible and that encourages critical thinking. And this antidote is guaranteed in principle in South Africa’s justly hailed Constitution.

It is for this reason that the role of the Fourth Estate — of journalism — is more crucial now than perhaps ever before. This is especially so when the South African government last week joined China and Russia — “hardly paragons of human rights” — in opposing a United Nations move to win an international commitment to respect freedom of expression and privacy online.

Here, says Bell, was an international aspect of what is an ongoing war where, in South Africa, the current battle is centred on the SABC. He sees this as a crucial battle because it concerns a public broadcaster that should be answerable — as indeed, all journalists should in principle be — to the public at large.

He points out that this battle is taking place in a media environment where public relations practitioners — spin doctors — probably outnumber journalists who are tasked with providing factual news to the print and broadcast media on which most people rely.

Yet media workers in South Africa are today organisationally weak and under increasing pressure as competition for a shrinking pool of jobs increases. According to Bell, it is perhaps ironic that the SA National Editors’ Forum is now the major industry standard bearer for freedom of expression and the free flow of information.

But while journalists clearly need to get their organisational house in order, he says the public at large should support the demand for freedom of expression and the free flow of information. It is the only counter, he says, to news that can be socially poisonous and politically debilitating.

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