Twenty years after the Windhoek Declaration on press freedom

owners happen to be journalists
and <strong>the</strong>refore enforce ethics as
editors, but <strong>the</strong>y are owners too and
balancing <strong>the</strong>se two portfolios is
not easy.
Editorial independence is compromised
in many ways through
advertiser interference. In South
Africa, Sowetan ran a story about a
huge electronics warehouse where
Africans were only employed as
labourers and people of Indian origin
were employed in <strong>the</strong> skilled parts
of <strong>the</strong> business. The company, HiFi
Corporation, admitted this was so
and justified this by saying “Indians”
had an aptitude for technology.
But <strong>the</strong>y went fur<strong>the</strong>r and threatened
Sowetan with withdrawing
advertising if <strong>the</strong> story ran. The paper
published both <strong>the</strong> story and
<strong>the</strong> threat. The editor could do so
because <strong>the</strong> owners, Avusa, were
prepared to back <strong>the</strong> publication.
“Editorial
independence
is compromised
in many ways
through advertiser
interference.”
In a recent workshop for African
business editors and senior business
writers from a number of countries, a
Nigerian journalist spoke of what he
called “taking care of <strong>the</strong> main investor’s
interests”. It turned out that this
was a euphemism for not writing
unsavoury stories about companies
or individuals with whom <strong>the</strong> main
investor or owner has ei<strong>the</strong>r business
dealings or were just plain friends.
Not that <strong>the</strong>re would exist a register
of <strong>the</strong>se people about whom you
were expected not to write bad
stories about. “You just have to
know,” <strong>the</strong> journalist said.
130 | Media in Africa - 2011
In o<strong>the</strong>r instances, newspapers
emerge during elections only to fold
<strong>the</strong>re<strong>after</strong>, having been owned by a
contesting individual who sought
to use it and <strong>the</strong> journalists so employed.
The paper was an instrument
to not only promote himself,
but also to attack whoever <strong>the</strong> opponent
would be. This compromises
any semblance of editorial
independence and ethics.
“The absence of
editorial independence
or its
subversion, negates
<strong>the</strong> platform on
which journalism is
based.”
But such patterns are not unique to
Africa. Italian prime minister Silvio
Berlusconi, owns more than half <strong>the</strong>
TV channels in that country and uses
<strong>the</strong>m unashamedly to campaign
and to survive <strong>the</strong> numerous “bunga
bunga” scandals. In Canada, five
<strong>years</strong> ago <strong>the</strong> editor-in-chief as well
as associate editor of <strong>the</strong> Canadian
Medical Association Journal (CMAJ)
were fired by <strong>the</strong> esteemed Canadian
Medical Association over editorial
independence.
So how important is it in Africa?
Journalism is based on a social
contract (sometimes legislated) between
society and journalists, in
terms of which <strong>the</strong> press is given
space to oversee <strong>the</strong> exercise of
power by elected and commercial
leaders, in <strong>the</strong> interests of <strong>the</strong> poor
and powerless.
This broad covenant presupposes
that in carrying out that responsibility,
journalists would do so without
fear, favour or prejudice, and that
<strong>the</strong>y would ignore both political and
economic influences. And <strong>the</strong> editor
is <strong>the</strong> editorial person who bears
final responsibility for this kind of
journalism and <strong>the</strong> stories that result
from it.
The absence of editorial independence
or its subversion, negates
<strong>the</strong> platform on which journalism is
based. Independence of thought is
our holy grail, it is our Hippocratic
Oath, it is our oxygen. Without this
journalism wi<strong>the</strong>rs and dies. Even if
journalists may continue to publish
and broadcast, <strong>the</strong> product is so
tainted it no longer carries weight.
And nothing could be worse than
that.