Ernst Roets and his fake views on ‘fake news’

AfriForum deputy CEO Ernst Roets took to Twitter on Wednesday to triumphantly declare victory over News24 after the Press Ombudsman ruled that the publication must apologise to the Afrikaner lobby group.

“The Press Ombudsman has ruled that News24 has to apologise to AfriForum for a serious breach of the press code by publishing fake news about AfriForum. Particularly with reference to an article by Pieter du Toit,” Roets tweeted.

The Press Ombudsman has ruled that News24 has to apologize to AfriForum for a serious breach of the press code by publishing fake news about AfriForum. Particularly with reference to an article by Pieter du Toit.

— Ernst Roets (@ErnstRoets) November 14, 2018

You would be forgiven for taking Roets at face value and assuming a great victory had just been won.

But Roets was somewhat misleading his many followers, most of whom appear to accept anything he says and angrily defend him against any criticism.

If you actually read the ombudsman ruling, though, which is available here, it becomes evident that most of AfriForum’s many complaints directed at an opinion piece written by Du Toit were dismissed, and only one was upheld.

The column was about Roets’ presentation to the parliamentary constitutional review committee that was investigating whether Section 25 of the Constitution should change to allow for expropriation of land without compensation.

Roets made a submission that even The Citizen’s reporter Amanda Watson called the “verbal equivalent of poking a stick into a large wasps’ nest” when he claimed that the narrative that whites stole the land was “the single biggest historical fallacy of our time” and that the ANC was leading the country into a “communist utopia”.

The ombudsman found in his ruling that most of AfriForum’s claims did not hold weight.

He found that the opinion piece was justified to claim that Roets did not explain why he believes white people in South Africa never “stole land”.

The ruling also found that Roets’ complaint that a video used in the opinion piece was “manipulated”, in an attempt to “corroborate” the article’s “false and untrue accusations”, had “no legs to stand on”.

The ruling also responded to the article’s assertion that Roets “sat grinning while black MPs spoke of their families’ experiences under apartheid” by saying: “I have no reason to believe that the statement in question was in breach of the Press Code.”

It added that the article could not be considered to have caused Roets “reputational damage”, as he claimed, since he himself had contributed to this “reputational damage”, if indeed there was any.

The ruling only found in favour of AfriForum on a single point, which was that the opinion piece claimed AfriForum had not offered a single solution to the problem of land in South Africa. Roets had indeed done so (or attempted to) in response to a later question.

The rest of the case was dismissed though.

READ MORE: Shocking racist memes of SA’s far right exposed in Discord Leaks

While you could argue Roets is exaggerating the extent of AfriForum’s victory, nothing was stopping him celebrating the fact that News24 would now have to apologise – if they don’t take the ruling on appeal.

What was most troubling was his classification of the entire opinion piece as “fake news”.

According to PolitiFact: “Fake news is made-up stuff, masterfully manipulated to look like credible journalistic reports that are easily spread online to large audiences willing to believe the fictions and spread the word.”

So while the term is meant to refer to wilfully fabricated articles – of which there are many examples on the internet today – it has become used by populists on both the far right and left as a catch-all term for any report that a person using the term disagrees with.

With many people publishing made-up news, the abuse of the term “fake news” should be taken seriously. It can’t be used to describe news you don’t like, or even news that is partially inaccurate.

This abuse is common on the fringes of both sides of the political spectrum. Both the EFF and BLF have dismissed as “fake news” articles that may have included inaccuracies, but were certainly not made up.

These days, sadly, calling articles written in the mainstream media “fake news” is something US President Donald Trump has become synonymous with.

Closer to home, far-right vloggers Willem Petzer and Danie Barnard were the subjects of a Citizen article about disgusting racist memes contained in a Discord chat group hosted by Petzer.

Petzer was quick to tell his adoring YouTube following our article about this was “fake news”.

Both he and Barnard took us to the ombudsman, and we are still awaiting a ruling.

I am confident the ombudsman will dismiss their complaints, but – as in the case of AfriForum vs News24 – if even a minor part of their complaint is found to be valid, there can be no doubt they will loudly boast that they have been vindicated in their “fake news” charge, and their followers will lap it up.

For more news your way, download The Citizen’s app for iOS and Android.