The loyalty of African journalism

My interest was piqued on reading the deliberate distortion of the thrust of Eric Miyeni’s views on the role of African journalists in corporate media.

The question is not how Miyeni said what he said, but the substance of the point he failed to make.

Despite the rage of the machine against his hate speech, no one has come forward to challenge his views on the relationship between editors and newspaper owners.

No right thinking person will try to defend or justify the unwarranted personal attack on City Press editor-in-chief Ferial Haffajee.

But now that tempers have cooled and Miyeni and Haffajee have kissed and made up, it is time to get back to the substance of Miyeni’s allegations that black editors are, largely, used to gain profits and preserve an unjust economic status quo more than informing and educating their readers in the pursuit of truth.

It often happens that when a newspaper pursues a story — however, factual, accurate, correct and truthful — it is in so sensational a manner that the aim is for profit rather than public interest.

Perhaps it is time that we asked ourselves: how well do so-called African journalists understand their role and responsibility as products of a historically oppressed people?

This is the matter that Miyeni tried to grapple with, but he came across as a Julius Malema self-appointed spokesperson who tried to defend and justify corruption.

But many commentators and letter writers did not concern themselves with the thrust of the question that needs to be raised today: whose interest do editors serve?

Perhaps we first need to admit that journalists and editors who come from the African community have played a historical role in the founding and launch of the ANC in 1912.

We should call for a frank discussion on the role of journalists who come from an oppressed background.

Just in case we have forgotten, both Miyeni and Haffajee, et al, come from an oppressed history and background.

When editors and journalists such as Sol Plaatje, Charles Dube, LT Mvabaza and F Monyakuane joined the 60-odd delegates, they attempted to position the voice of the African press in the forefront of championing the struggle for self-determination and economic liberation.

Perhaps it is time we called attention to the fact that African journalists have not only blurred the line between oppressors and oppressed, but crossed to the former camp.

Today the notion of so-called African journalists who capture and articulate the genuine aspirations of the grassroots is a thing of the past.

Instead they have become willing editorial executives of profit-making capitalists who are not interested in economic justice, social equality and the sharing of the wealth of this country.

The wall that separated journalism from commercial interests has long collapsed as the prerequisite to be an editor is to obtain an MBA or provide strategies to make more profits.

As a result, mercenary African journalists are only interested in pursuing their careers — just like some politicians — as well as accruing material wealth to gain status and recognition in society.

It is at such time that we need to remind ourselves of the calibre of African journalists such as Plaatje, et al, who were concerned about the future of this country and its people.

In this raging debate about the ANC and its relationship with the media, we should all be reminded — as Africans! — of the history that has produced us.

It is time for all African journalists — both black and white — to renew their commitment to the fair redistribution of land and wealth, the fight against racism and creation of social justice in this country like Ruth First, Govan Mbeki and Patrick Laurence, for example.

There is no doubt that African journalists in this country need a new grounding with a new direction.

Instead of the pursuit of the truth, the agenda of the media seems not only to be profit-making but finding everything wrong in the movement that Plaatje and others committed their lives to.

I think it is a critical examination by journalists of lives such as Plaatje that will present an enlightened role of the press in the reconstruction of our society.

There is no doubt that there are a lot of things that have gone horribly wrong in the oldest liberation movement in the African continent.

Of course, the fact that its youth wing has leaders of the calibre of Malema who do not practice what they preach makes the problem worse.

The big question is: where are journalists who are passionate about their history to right the wrongs?

We have to make the link between the questions that Miyeni raised about Haffajee and the history and role of African journalists and editors in the struggle for economic liberation.

But since the emergence of the 1990s generation of journalists into top dog positions, we have seen a weakening of the political solidarity between the media and the people of this country who should be served by the ANC.

It is strange that today it is the ANC which is the voice of the people and not the media, if my reading of contemporary history is correct.