In a recent report, Amnesty International criticised the South African government for violating human rights during the worst of the Covid-19 lockdown.
Reporters Without Borders’ 2021 World Press Freedom Index indicates that press freedom was also violated – not only in South Africa, but in 73% of the 180 countries surveyed.
The index data reports a global ‘dramatic deterioration in people’s access to information and an increase in obstacles to news coverage’. The organisation says the coronavirus pandemic has been used in many countries as grounds to block journalists’ access to information sources and reporting in the field.
With World Press Freedom Day being commemorated on May 3, Caxton Local Media – which publishes 118 local newspapers – looks at how Covid-19 has impacted its newsrooms’ ability to gather information, especially from government and its entities.
On the hunt for info
Many of the Caxton editors report challenges in getting information from their local municipalities and other government bodies. The reasons given by journalists include municipal offices not being fully staffed, officials who work from home not always being accessible or having connectivity issues, and the regular closing of police stations and other offices because of infections.
“The excuse of having only a 50% staff capacity ‘because of Covid-19’ was used regularly, including by the health authorities,” says Terry Worley, editor of the Northern KZN Courier.
Estella Naicker, a senior Caxton Local Media investigative journalist based in KwaZulu-Natal, says she experienced instances of government clamping down on free speech.
“Prior to the president announcing the hard lockdown, a medical doctor whose practice is in the vicinity of a Covid-19 testing facility, sent a voice note to family and friends, warning that the number of people infected was far higher than government was letting on.
“When I contacted him to find out more, he explained that due to the location of his practice, he was privy to information from the lab at which samples were being tested and he invited me to phone him that evening.”
Naicker says when she later called, he said he received calls from senior government officials warning that if he spoke to the media, he would be in big trouble. “He wouldn’t say more, even with the promise of complete anonymity.
“Other doctors, healthcare workers, scientists, hospital managers (especially from the public sector, but also from the private sector), and even a provincial spokesperson, also informed me that they were warned not to speak to the press.”
She says all media enquiries related to Covid-19 had to be forwarded either to the premier’s office or to the health ministry. “The communications personnel in these departments are slow to respond, if they respond at all.”
Naicker says they were told that the gag on medical experts was intended to mitigate unnecessary public panic by stemming the tide of misinformation making its way into mainstream media. “However, we understand that this is also meant to manage public perception of the government and how it is handling the situation.
“As a result, journalists have limited access to specialist knowledge, which suppresses critical reporting.”
Lana O’Neill, the editor of the Boksburg Advertiser and Benoni City Times, says the fact that journalists were deemed essential workers meant ‘we could get on with the job’.
However, she says the police, government hospitals and the municipal council have remained difficult to penetrate. “We are continually referred to ‘province’ when it comes to anything to do with Covid-19 stats or goings-on in their departments.
“We often found ourselves bombarded with messages from police officers and other ‘insiders’ about the infection rate at their places of work and how this was being managed – or not managed, according to them. However, the powers-that-be were not forthcoming with the information we subsequently requested,” says O’Neill.
“Spokespeople found it difficult to get hold of officials to respond to press queries and we received little to no response from them,” adds Tarina Coetzee, the editor of the Lowvelder.
Pretoria Rekord deputy group editor Corné van Zyl says journalists were under immense pressure during the strict lockdown. “One piece of missed information or misinterpretation could see a journalist breaking regulations and thus facing fines or jail time,” she says.
Van Zyl says sometimes the Tshwane Covid-19 stats would be incorrect and their readers would look to them for clarity. However, this information could be verified only by government and at times, her journalists were unable to reach the relevant officials.
She says the presidency’s media office would not take their calls, which restricted their ability to share crucial information with their readers.
However, she believes the relationship between government and the media was strengthened in some instances because government relied on media houses to disseminate crucial information.
Carina van der Walt, group editor of three Gauteng newspapers, recalls that her journalists were denied access to the nearby Nasrec field office and had to rely on press releases rather than first-hand information.
“When we received complaints about empty beds and the hospital not being utilised, the same applied – we could not get close.”
KwaZulu-Natal journalist Michael Dlamini says in his experience, the Covid-19 card was sometimes played by government spokespeople.
“To get anything out of government entities has always been a struggle but nowadays, it’s even harder,” says Clinton Botha, the editor of Randfontein Herald and Krugersdorp News.
A number of journalists say getting information from private institutions such as schools and hospitals was just as challenging. “Media queries were centralised to head offices and details on availability of beds and state of readiness were vague,” says Coetzee.
Praise where praise is due
Marietta Lombard, a Gauteng group editor and member of the Caxton Covid-19 task team, says she does not believe information was generally withheld by government.
“The number of stories published daily, even hourly, during the lockdown and the first few months of Covid-19, proves that.
“The first press conference hosted by the National Institute for Communicable Diseases about Covid-19 and covered by the Bedfordview and Edenvale News was as early as the end of January 2020,” she says.
David Rush of the South Coast Herald agrees, saying he does not believe his newsroom experienced much deliberate non-communication. “At times, spokespeople tried hard to help but at other times, they were just not available. So it was often a case of hit and miss.”
Some newsrooms reported that their journalists had established solid relationships with spokespeople and officials prior to the pandemic, and this stood them in good stead during the stringent lockdown.
“Our journalists have always worked hard to establish good relationships with the various spokespeople, so for the most part, we got by,” says Rush.
“We found the normally taciturn SAPS more willing to provide and update us on queries. As a result of their lockdown enforcement operations, they were more active than normal and wanted to share their successes,” adds Worley.
“The same went for the traffic police, who were co-operative and even took me on patrols and roadblocks with them.”
More data journalism needed
Lombard believes the lack of data journalism in South Africa has been exposed as a result of the pandemic.
“The Covid-19 pandemic put data journalism at the forefront of interpreting statistics and graphs to allow for in-depth storytelling. Different angles of investigation and analysis were used by international data journalists to help us better understand the pandemic.
“Data-driven journalism provided readers in an emotional situation with fact-based information, to give context and generate insights.”
Lombard says in her opinion, the lack of data journalists in South Africa had the biggest impact on the quality of Covid-19 reporting.
Finding new avenues
Some of the journalists surveyed said they had to look at new ways of acquiring information, as often their old avenues were no longer an option.
“We found that even though we were not physically able to gather the news – due to various factors, including but not limited to smaller newsrooms – we had several contacts who were more than happy to provide photos, information and even contact details for sources in departments we would need to engage with, in order to produce accurate and holistic reporting,” says Reveshni Douglas, the editor of the Newcastle Advertiser.
“For now, the global pandemic has necessitated greater reliance on avenues we considered a plus, but not essential, before – WhatsApp to conduct interviews, more phone calls, emails and Facebook and fewer face-to-face interactions,” she says.
The editors expressed hope that ‘desk journalism’ will give way to old-fashioned methods of news gathering once the pandemic is behind us.
Kate Skinner, an independent media researcher, says while Covid-19 has been devastating for the industry on a number of levels, it has also given the sector the opportunity to look at things differently and to ‘build back better’. “A stronger, more innovative and more independent media industry is what we need to be building,” she says.
Sanef interventions
Hopewell Radebe, the acting executive director of the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef), says the forum had to intervene to ensure adequate court reporting could continue during the higher lockdown levels.
“Access to the courts was a nightmare. The forum eventually held meetings with several magistrates, the Magistrates Commission and regional high court judge presidents to request uniform ways of access for the media in general. The matter is not completely resolved but there has been a steady flow of access for the media to the various courts, though these interventions,” he says.
Radebe says Sanef also intervened after noting that initially, health ministry officials did not speak to or brief the media regularly, nor make its experts available to the media. Likewise, he says, at beginning of the lockdown, President Cyril Ramaphosa would brief the media without taking questions.
“Following discussions, the Minister of Health, Zweli Mkhize, started briefing the media regularly and had his experts on hand. After formal presentations, the president too made himself available to answer questions.”
