Community newspapers such as The North Coast Courier are fittingly described as the “voice of the people”.
But it is not as simple as that, since many intricacies are at play.
Apart from being a business like any other, having to generate income to pay staff and cover operational costs, the core mandate of newspapers is to serve the interests of the public in which it operates.
It may sound somewhat pretentious, even bordering on inflated nobleness, given the frequent demeaning terms directed at our trade – “insensitive vultures” and “sensationalists trying to sell more papers” being just two of the choice ones.
Just for the record, the Courier doesn’t sell newspapers. You get it for free. Whether an edition carries so-called sensational articles or not, makes no difference to our print run or income.
So, that settles that argument.
We learn to roll with the punches though as it comes with the territory.
Name calling is one thing, but politeness on our part is often tested to the limits when those suffering from serious emotional immaturity bark swear words, insults and threats our way every time they don’t like or agree with something we publish.
Intelligent discourse is our preferred method of dealing with disputes.
If we do get something wrong, we admit and correct it, but not when we were within our rights.
Apart from the harmless candy floss stuff such as social events, people profiles and such, hard news inevitably leaves some party or individual aggrieved – and we are always in the middle of it.
The golden rule is: What is of public interest.
When we report on a lack of service delivery from the authorities, for example – matters that negatively impact the public – they might become extremely annoyed, pointing accusing fingers at us for always “focusing on the negatives”.
They conveniently forget about all the supportive and positive articles we previously published about them.
We are not out to “get anyone” or deliberately attempt to harm the reputation of any organisation or individual. We simply report facts and don’t make judgment calls. That’s for the readers to do.
But it is also not our duty to protect anyone when it is in the public interest to report on matters such as murder, crime, fraud and corruption, child and woman abuse, drug dealing and so on.
Then it is gloves off, as long as we follow the strict codes of conduct as determined by law and the SA Press Code which we adhere to.
Quite often we hear the accusation that we are in collusion with someone or something because we delay in reporting on some issue when all the evidence and/or facts are not available.
Unlike the drivel published by hotheads on social media platforms – unlawful as they may be – newspapers are hauled off to court in double quick time if we fall in the trap of emotional reporting.
Oh, and one more thing, a community newspapers’ function is not to get involved in personal disputes. Every man and his dog wants us to fight their fights – be it the irritating neighbour who kicked your beloved cat, rude business staff, the shopkeeper who shortchanged a customer by 50 cents and such like.
These aren’t in the public interest, but people getting sick after eating poisoned food at a restaurant certainly is.
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