ANC has Second Thoughts on ‘Media Tribunal’ Plan

Africa National Congress (ANC) spokeswoman Jessie Duarte has changed her mind about a media tribunal to supplement self-regulatory mechanisms, saying it was “not the time or place”.

“The tribunal was a proposal,” Duarte said at a discussion of political party media strategies yesterday. “It’s still on the table but the views are shifting. So we would need to take it back to a policy conference.”

Duarte said mechanisms, including the press ombudsman, needed to be strengthened in order to ensure accountability.

The proposal for a media tribunal was solidified at the party’s elective conference in Polokwane in 2007. Party president Jacob Zuma recently said that he backed such a tribunal.

Duarte said the media in SA was historically hostile towards the ANC and remained so.

“This temperament has existed since the ’60s. When (former president Nelson) Mandela was released from prison, (the media) was highly critical of his ability to lead after spending 20 years in jail. Thabo Mbeki had a torrid time,” she said.

Duarte took particular issue with the way Zuma had been “castigated” in the media, saying he had been wrongly portrayed as a “rapist with a standard three education”.

“We find that level of hostility racist and characterised by class.”

Democratic Alliance (DA) CEO Ryan Coetzee defended the media, saying it was not a coherent entity with a particular agenda and that journalists were individuals who expressed different views.

“The issue of hostility is overblown,” he said. “The idea of a state-organised media tribunal is too awful. We support freedom of expression.… We don’t think the media has an agenda. You have to view people as individuals.”

The Congress of the People’s (COPE’s) head of communication, JJ Tabane, said that all media could not be “painted with the same brush”. He agreed that COPE’s media strategy centred on wooing the media “to sing our song”, saying this was an effective way to “manage perception”.

“It is a strategy to use the media ... sometimes the ANC do the work for us,” Tabane said.

“There is a good percentage of South Africans who do not want to waste their vote. I can promise you on April 22 many of you are going to be surprised.”

But Coetzee said that COPE should serve as a lesson that an election campaign could not be “thought up in one afternoon”.