"In the tea break of the hearing the community groups
asked us ‘why are we coming to the defense of newspapers? Newspapers ignore us.
When they report on us they present us as irrational thugs. They never tell our
side of the story'".
This is Right 2 Know
activist, Mark Steinberg's, account of an event in 2012 that inspired the Right 2 Know campaign to adjust their
cause.
The pro press freedom organisation now fends for diverse
media along with its initial cause: the right not to be censored by the
government.
In 2012 the Right 2
Know campaign invited Cape Townian township leaders to a series of hearings
hosted by the Press Freedom Commission. The hearings aimed to deter the use of
a proposed governmental body that would censor print media.
Steinberg recalled the tea-break-revelation at a journalism conference
held in honor of International Press Freedom Day on the 2nd of May at the University
of Stellenbosch.
This year's Press Freedom Day marks 20 years of press
freedom since apartheid's rigid restrictions on the media.
Steinberg believes that the state has neglected its citizens
the right to diverse media in the last two decades.
He believes the lack of state funding for the start up of
small independent media allow conglomerate media houses to drown out the voices
of South Africans who do not promise large profits.
Media houses like Caxton and CTP Group, Media24
, Independent
News and Media and Avusa
have dominated the media market since the establishment
of a post-apartheid free market media industry. According to Steinberg Media24 dominates more than 40% of print
media circulation.
Steinberg highlights that public and community media have to
revert to commercial business models to keep running.
Another speaker at the Stellenbosch conference, Tim du Plessis, head of Afrikaans
Newspaper at Media 24, agrees that profit-driven
media serve selected South Africans.
"Increasingly our media has become fairly homogenous,
servicing the interest and anxieties of urban audiences and middle class
audiences. What we find is a information system that isn't strong enough;
robust and diverse enough to serve our democracy", says Steinberg.
"We should be very concerned about a media system that is
set up to create profit or businesses rather than to facilitate and inform
dialogue that our country needs to grapple with the period of negotiation we
have now".
Steinberg says the current political unrest and
dissatisfaction with the ruling party, the ANC, marks "a very challenging time
for our democracy".
He contends that sufficient dialogue in media with all South
Africans, including the Cape Townian township residents, is vital to ensure
press freedom and our democracy.
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