It’s time for the media to reclaim its freedom

In one of his popular books, titled The Famished Road, Ben Okri said, “We must take an interest in politics. We must become spies on behalf of justice.” Such injustices Okri speaks of include that of Press Freedom.

‘Black Wednesday’ is very synonymous to the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM). It is impossible to think of a day where we pay tribute to our Press Freedom and not think of Biko’s passing. Wednesday, October 19, 1977, was a year and four months after the Soweto uprising and a month and a week after Steve Biko’s death in detention.

The passing of Biko was also the death of every newspaper that was aligned to Black Consciousness organisations. It was also the opportune time for the Apartheid regime to shutdown newspapers that were critical of its governance.

The closing down of such newspapers included The World, the largest circulation black newspaper. Its editor Percy Qoboza was detained, among other activists, journalists and critics of its policies and brutality.

Today, 26 years later, South Africa needs a media that is aligned to Black Consciousness. Unfortunately, the talk about freedom of expression, which in the Constitution also includes freedom of the press and other media, is limited.

The South African media is limited. Recently television and radio anchors have been using their platforms to settle personal scores. They act and carry themselves in a manner that makes their opinions more important than those of the viewers and listeners they are hired to represent.

Some publications have owners and reporters that are mouthpieces of the governing party, while others are on the other side of the spectrum, opposing any good the government is doing. This is a direct result of the imbalances of media ownership in South Africa.

It would be impossible for the media in our country to be Black Conscious when it is predominantly white owned. The fronting of black editors doesn’t mean transformation is taking place in our media landscape. Ironically, since the dawn of democracy, the South African media is showing more signs of being unfree than ever before.

A 2019 report by the Mail & Guardian’s “data desk” on the colour composition of various media entities in SA shows that we are still far from the manifestation of a freer, fairer, honest and black conscious South African press.

It said, “The media is not unlike many companies in the country; it is run mostly by white people. An analysis of ownership structures, demographics and funding models shows that the boards of media houses comprise 41% white, 24% African, 17% coloured, 16% Indian and 2% of people from elsewhere.”

It further said, “Race and the media was the subject of debate in 2018.

In line with global trends of growing institutional mistrust, some of South Africa’s renowned media institutions have come under fire, with accusations mostly of protecting the interests of the elite or, more specifically, white monopoly capital.”

Today, we don’t have fearless black journalists who don’t compromise their blackness and what it stands for. Those who chose to uphold their principles and integrity are sidelined and blacklisted. Many black journalists of our era are bought with brown envelopes and they are enticed with promotions within the work place.

On us celebrating National Media Freedom Day, I wish we could emulate the black journalists and editors of the 1970s and 80s.

Ben Okri revived our hopes when he said, “We must look at ourselves differently. We are freer than we think. We haven’t begun to live yet. The man whose light has come on in his head, in his dormant sun, can never be kept down or defeated. We can re-dream this world and make the dream real. Human beings are gods hidden from ourselves.”

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  Kabelo Chabalala

  Kabelo Chabalala is the founder and chairperson of the Young Men Movement (YMM), an organisation that focuses on the reconstruction of the socialisation of boys to create a new cohort of men. Email, kabelo03chabalala@gmail.com ; Twitter, @KabeloJay; Facebook,Kabelo Chabalala

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