Twenty years after the Windhoek Declaration on press freedom

Self-regulation for democracy’s sake
By Joe Thloloe
Joe Thloloe started his career in <strong>the</strong>
1960s on <strong>the</strong> Rand Daily Mail and
Golden City Post. He is a veteran of
Drum magazine, <strong>the</strong> (banned) World
and (also banned) Post, as well as
Sowetan. After democracy, he rose
to head up SABC TV news in its early
days, and subsequently occupied <strong>the</strong>
same position at e-TV. In 2007, he was
appointed Press Ombudsman, within
<strong>the</strong> South African Press Council.
72 | Media in Africa - 2011
Tucked away among <strong>the</strong> initiatives
and projects identified at <strong>the</strong> seminar
that produced <strong>the</strong> <strong>Windhoek</strong>
<strong>Declaration</strong> is a project on <strong>the</strong> “development
and promotion of nongovernmental
regulations and codes
of ethics in each country in order to
defend more effectively <strong>the</strong> profession
and ensure its credibility.”
<strong>Twenty</strong> <strong>years</strong> later it has become
urgent to revisit <strong>the</strong> project and
tackle it with <strong>the</strong> same vigour that
was shown when Africa fought
colonialism.
The irony is that politicians and
ordinary citizens in each of our
countries will proclaim: “I love and
respect freedom of expression and
freedom of <strong>the</strong> media; I support a
free and independent press, but…”
The rub is in that but phrase.
In South Africa, we enshrined freedom
of expression, “which includes
… freedom of <strong>the</strong> press and o<strong>the</strong>r
media” in <strong>the</strong> Constitution and we
believed we were among <strong>the</strong> pacesetters
in upholding democracy.
Immediately <strong>after</strong> <strong>the</strong> Constitution
was adopted in 1996, <strong>the</strong> press
quickly looked at its system of selfregulation
and amended it to match
<strong>the</strong> new liberation. It transformed
<strong>the</strong> Press Council that had existed
during <strong>the</strong> days of apar<strong>the</strong>id
and created an Ombudsman’s
office. In 2007 <strong>the</strong>re was fur<strong>the</strong>r
transformation as <strong>the</strong> press felt
<strong>the</strong> need to have <strong>the</strong> voice of <strong>the</strong>
reading public in <strong>the</strong> mechanism.
Thus <strong>the</strong> current Press Council and
Ombudsman’s office came into
being.
Over <strong>the</strong> past few short <strong>years</strong>,
however, <strong>the</strong> politicians started
grumbling and those grumbles are
now a loud anger at self-regulation.
Leaders of <strong>the</strong> African National
Congress (ANC) ruling party have
argued that <strong>the</strong> Ombudsman is
biased in favour of <strong>the</strong> publications
because he is a former journalist;
that complainants who want to
use <strong>the</strong> system have to waive <strong>the</strong>ir
constitutional rights to go to <strong>the</strong>
courts; that <strong>the</strong> system does not
have <strong>the</strong> force of law; and that
<strong>the</strong> Ombudsman is toothless – <strong>the</strong>
only sanctions that <strong>the</strong> system
can impose are a reprimand, <strong>the</strong>
publication of an apology, or a
summary of <strong>the</strong> rulings.
Each of <strong>the</strong>se criticisms can be
proved to be false:
• <strong>the</strong> record of <strong>the</strong> decisions of
<strong>the</strong> Ombudsman and of <strong>the</strong>
Press Appeals Panel, headed
by a former judge, is public on
our website: two thirds of <strong>the</strong>
findings are in favour of <strong>the</strong>
complainants;
• <strong>the</strong> complainants are informed
of <strong>the</strong> option to go to <strong>the</strong>
courts or o<strong>the</strong>r tribunals and
<strong>the</strong>y voluntarily choose to use
<strong>the</strong> Press Council’s system; and,
finally,
• <strong>the</strong> vast majority of press
councils around <strong>the</strong> world do
not impose fines because <strong>the</strong>y
see <strong>the</strong>ir role as educational
ra<strong>the</strong>r than punitive.