Media in SA freer, but…

The media fraternity in South Africa has warmly welcomed the good news that the country has improved its ranking by 10 places from last year in the Reporters Without Borders global media freedom rankings – which indicates how SA values freedom of expression, including press freedom, as contained in the constitution.

But, the industry is concerned about the deterioration of press freedom elsewhere in the world.

Veteran media analyst and former editor Professor Anton Harber said SA’s rise in the rankings, from 35 out of 180 countries last year, to 25, must be celebrated.

“One can see the significance of this in the fact that we are ahead of the US, UK, Australia, Belgium, Spain and Italy. We are second in Africa, behind only Namibia.

“[SA’s rise] reflects more on the deterioration in other countries than any major shift within the country. It signals that some of the threats to our media that affected our rating in previous years have receded, but the global situation has deteriorated considerably.

“Nevertheless, we can be proud of our place in the world above and among the most free nations.”

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The media watchdog, Reporters Without Borders, has been at the forefront of guarding against the abuse of journalists worldwide and exposed countries that deprived the media of its freedom.

While welcoming the development, the SA National Editors Forum expressed concerns about the growing trend of online threats targeting journalists, especially women journalists, using hate speech, death threats, or threats of physical harm.

It cited trends of trolling and doxing, (the act of disclosing a journalist’s full name, address, contact number and other identifying details without their consent).

The verbal abuse of journalists was common during the Jacob Zuma administration. On numerous occasions he unsuccessfully tried to sue veteran cartoonist, Zapiro for his cartoons.

In the ongoing case, Zuma took journalist Karyn Maughan to court for publishing a story based on information allegedly leaked to her by senior state prosecutor, Billy Downer.

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