Daily Maverick to appeal ombudsman ruling in favour of Mkhwebane

Daily Maverick (DM) editor Branko Brkic said the publication would be appealing a ruling which found that the publication should have granted spokesperson for the office of the public protector Oupa Segalwe’s request for a right of reply to an analysis written by Stephen Grootes, ‘How to ruin a Chapter Nine institution in 28 months’.

While Segalwe says he was denied a right of reply, Brkic denies this.

“We have no problem, and never had a problem, with publishing Oupa’s right of reply,” he said.

“We routinely publish rights of reply. But I have a problem with weaponising a right to reply and when it is used to attack journalists personally. This is a much bigger issue than a single right of reply.

“There must be an element of goodwill and Mr Segalwe has never shown any, through never even responding to our simple request but immediately going on a Twitter rant instead.”

In response, Segalwe told The Citizen the DM and Grootes “themselves ‘weaponised’ their op-ed and attacked the PP personally”.

“We, on the other hand, did no such thing. All we did is provide facts to counter the inaccuracies and also referenced Grootes’ failure to check facts as in his book to make the point that there was a history to it.

“The DM should not just protect its contributors. It should equally protect the subjects of the content they publish from unfair contributors—all in the name of even-handedness,” said Segalwe.

Segalwe denies not responding to any of DM’s requests, saying he “was constantly in contact with Janet Heard,” and says rather than a Twitter “rant”, the office simply published their right of reply on their own website and linked to it on Twitter after DM rejected it.

Earlier on Wednesday, the public protector’s office released a statement saying Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane welcomed the ruling.

READ MORE: Mkhwebane responds to being Daily Maverick’s ‘saboteur of the year’

The statement accuses DM of publishing an article “fraught with personal attacks” on Mkhwebane, “including that she was incompetent, biased, part of a campaign to weaken the National Treasury, a criminal or a servant of criminals and that she had damaged her office beyond repair”.

According to the statement, the article also “overlooked or misrepresented facts”.

The article says that while Mkhwebane has complained about more than half of the remedial actions stipulated in her reports not being implemented, it “was her own behaviour and her obvious mistakes that led to the wave of disaffection with her and the important democratic institution she is entrusted with leading for seven years”.

The ruling found that since the piece was written as commentary, it is protected by the Press Code, “even if it is extreme, unjust, unbalanced, exaggerated and prejudiced, as long as it is without malice, is on a matter of public interest, has taken fair account of all material facts that are either true or reasonably true, and is presented in a manner that it appears clearly to be comment”.

While Segalwe accepted this, he complained that he was then refused a right of reply, arguing that Daily Maverick had violated clause 1.8 of the Press Code, which allows “the subject of critical reportage” comment or a right of reply.

Ombudsman Pippa Green found DM was indeed in transgression of this clause, a tier two offence according to the Press Code.

Segalwe must now be granted a right of reply on behalf of Mkwhebane’s office, which must be approved by the ombudsman, provided DM is not successful in its appeal.

Grootes declined to comment.

The full ombudsman ruling can be read here.

The statement from the office of the public protector can be read below:

PP @AdvBMkhwebane welcomes Press Ombudsman ruling against @dailymaverick pic.twitter.com/6c87sjeIQM

— Public Protector SA (@PublicProtector) January 8, 2020

NOTE: This story has been updated to include Daily Maverick’s decision to appeal the ombudsman ruling, as well as Brkic’s comment and Segalwe’s response. 

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