“We must cherish and protect freedom of the media and we need to be vigilant about any transgressions on the rights of others by the guardian of the public interest,” Pahad told delegates.
“The media's right to inform must be understood in a broader context - where freedom of the press intersects with social responsibility. The right to inform is an integral part of the freedom of the press which is essential to democracy.
“It is sacrosanct, and it must be protected, defended and nurtured. There is an intrinsic relationship between democracy and freedom of the press,” Pahad added.
Pahad's reassurance comes against the backdrop of the ANC's belief that SA media freedom is not being undermined by the state, but by what the party called ‘various tendencies that arise from the commercial imperatives that drive the media'.
However, some analysts believe that bragging about press freedom is not enough, and thus calling on the SA government to do more to improve its communication with the press if it wants to stay relevant and active in a society it operates.
“It is difficult for the media to get access to government people in this country,” Celia Dugger, of the New York Times, said. “This limits the ability to report fully on government's policy and it is very frustrating,” Dugger said.
“Government should engage us and talk to us to sell its policy,” Alec Russell, Johannesburg bureau chief of Financial Times, said.
“Government should interact with the media and its people to convey messages that it believes can promote national interests.
Isabel Parenthoen, Africa bureau chief of Agence France Presse (AFP), echoed Dugger and Russell's sentiments.
“There is simply no cooperation from the government,” she said. “The local Foreign Correspondents Association has been battling in vain since last September to get together with the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS),” a visibly frustrated Parenthoen said.
She also accused the SA government of having no knowledge as to how the media operates.
“Where was Mbeki when the xenophobic attacks started? Why did he issue a statement only this week and in the evening?” Parenthoen asked. “The timing meant only one paper could use it in its late editions and I doubt whether ordinary people would have understood it.
“Mbeki should have gone to one of the sites of attacks. Where were his ministers? Go and speak to people directly to use radio through an understandable language.
“SA is treated as a democracy like the US, Canada, Spain and others. This means in a democracy the government must explain itself.
“And ignoring the media is ignoring the people,” she said.
The conference, organised for the second consecutive year in Johannesburg, examines how SA is portrayed in the international media and its impact on the social and economic development of the country. It ends on Thursday.
For more information, go to www.internationalmediaforumsa.com.
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