COMM2724

Unit 4a: Media ethics

in the South African
context
Unit
Outcomes
● Compare and contrast the normatie media ethics and
public communicaton ialues in BOTH the preiious and
current politcal dispensatons in South Africa
● Identfy issues that could inform the expectatons of
media performance in the future
● Discuss professional media ethics in South Africa today
and the self-regulaton of media professionals

Reading: Oosthuizen, L.M. 2014. Media Ethics in the South African Context: an
Introducton and Overview͟. 2nd Editon. Lansdowne: Juta. Pages 107-177.

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Democracy
Freedom, Equality, and Order –
● Values to which media professionals are held
accountable by the goiernment
● Values to which goiernment is held accountable in
their expectatons and policies about media conduct.

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Freedom
Freedom in media ethics:
○ exempts the media from censorship and legislaton
that preients the acquisiton of informaton
○ allows the media to obserie and critcize the actons
of the goiernment (i.e., actng as a goiernment
watchdog)
○ allows people to economically beneft from mass
media enterprises (priiate ownership ensures the
free fow of informaton to the people and multple
sources of informaton) 4
Equality
Equality in media ethics focuses on equal access to both
users and suppliers of informaton, including:
○ the existence of a public broadcastng system to ensure
equal access
○ Media Deielopment and Diiersity Act of 2002 –
preients monopolies to ensure fair competton and to
promote diiersity of opinion, iiewpoints, and
informaton
○ Subsidies and tax exemptons for struggling news media
and for those representng minority iiewpoints
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Order
Order ensures that freedom is not exercised at the
expense of other indiiiduals, groups, or society as a
whole, such as (but not limited to):
○ protectng children against iiolent media content or
pornography
○ stpulatons barring hate speech in the media
○ protectng the priiacy of indiiiduals

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Government infuence on
media
● Different goiernments haie different ideas about what is
in the best interest of the people
● The type of goiernment in power infuences the ways in
which freedom, equality, and order are artculated on:
○ the rights afforded to the media
○ the restrictons that are placed on the media
○ the expectatons of how the media should conduct
themselies to best serie society
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National Party government
● The preiious politcal dispensaton was labeled a
“democracy”, but that was in name only, partcularly because:
○ The majority of the populaton had no say in the legislaton that
applied to them because they had no representaton in parliament
○ The executie had wide-ranging discretonary powers, which
included the right to prohibit publicaton
○ There was no Bill of Rights, in keeping with the principle of human
rights
● South Africa looked more like an Aristocracy than a
democracy 8
 National Party government
● Legal framework –restricted press freedom and curtailed the
actiites of ant-goiernment groups
● Laws only made proiision for the interests of the minority
● Consttuton made no proiision for media rights (e.g., freedom
to access informaton). Media freedom was not explicit, but
rather implied under “freedom of speech”, which leaies a lot
of room for interpretaton
● More than 100 laws restricted newsgathering and media
content 9
National Party government
Internal Security Act of 1982:
○ Newspaper registratons had to pay a deposit of up to R20 000,
which would be forfeited if the goiernment determined that the
publicaton iiolated any laws
○ The goiernment could prohibit organizatons and ban indiiiduals
(such as the ANC, PAC, and SACP) and made it unlawful to publish
any statement by a banned person or organizaton
○ The goiernment could prohibit any publicaton when it was deemed
to:
■ jeopardize state security and the maintenance of law and order
■ promote communism or was the publicaton of a prohibited organizaton
■ incited racial hatred
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○ Indiiidual journalists were banned
National Party government
Internal Security Act of 1982 (cont.):
○ Prohibited encouraging “terrorism” – but terrorism was so broadly
defned that journalists could iiolate the act simply by reportng on a
terrorism incident
○ Restricted on reportng on sabotage, terrorism, subiersion, and
riotng – media had to be iery careful that publicatons did not
report on these eients in such as way as to encourage them
○ People (including journalists) could be detained for 90 days without
trial
○ Made it impossible for journalists to report on social inequalites
○ Goiernment had the power to close down newspapers and silence
the ioices of ant-goiernment groups 11
 National Party government
● Police Act 7 of 1958 and Prisons Act 8 of 1959 –
○ made it an offense to publish anything “untrue” about police and prisons, so
nothing could be published without strong proof
○ Journalists couldn’t publish informaton about crimes or natonal security from
any source other than the police, which made it near impossible to report
misconduct by police or prison personnel
● Defence Act of 1957 – made it difcult to report on anything relatng to
natonal security (for example reports on the Angolan ciiil war were
highly one-sided and censored)
● Protecton of Informaton Act of 1982 – the reportng of confdental
informaton was punishable
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National Party government
Publicatons Act of 1974 – allowed for censorship based on
“undesirability” which occurred when the publicaton:
○ was judged to be indecent, obscene, offensiie, or harmful to public
morals
○ was regarded as blasphemous or offensiie to the religious
coniictons of any secton of the populaton of the Republic
○ brought any secton of the populaton of the Republic into ridicule or
contempt
○ harmed the relatons between any sectons of the populaton of the
Republic
○ was prejudicial to the safety of the state, the general welfare or the
peace and good order 13
 National Party government
● Publicatons Act of 1974 (cont):
○ Once prohibited, distributon or
possession of the publicaton
became an offence
○ This was used to ban any politcal
content that was deemed to
threaten the status quo (which at
the tme was apartheid)
○ Not surprisingly, black authors and
journalists were prohibited and
silenced much more than their
white counterparts 14
National Party government
● No reportng on ‘subiersiie
statements’, security force actons,
the treatment of politcal
detainees, and boycots
and protests
● Some newspapers let their readers
know they were being censored
(blank spaces or redactons)

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National Party government
● Broadcastng –
○ The SABC had a monopoly on teleiision news
○ The Natonal Party used the SABC to dominate its politcal oppositon
and silenced culturally diierse iiews
○ There were separate radio statons for black ethnic groups, which
helped their strategy of diiiding and ruling
■ 24 radio statons in 20 languages
■ 4 teleiision statons in 7 languages
○ SABC was used extensiiely to disseminate the iiews of the Natonal
Party (Black radio statons proiided a model of subseriience)
○ Informaton shared was highly censored by the goiernment
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 National Party government
● Commissions of inquiry: media were targeted and scrutnized. They were
pressured to censor themselies when reportng on “enemies of the
State” (as defned by the State) and to promote a positie image of the
State.
● Confrontaton with reporters: Especially foreign journalists as they were
iery critcal of apartheid. Some foreign journalists were denied iisas to
SA or forced to leaie the country when their work permits were not
renewed. This was a form of censorship.
● The goiernment contnually blamed the press for many issues in the
country

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 National Party government
Implicatons for South Africa:
○ Large Sectons of South African reality were excluded from press
coierage
○ Vague laws and pressure by the goiernment led to self-censorship
(out of fear) by the media which hampered the free fow of
informaton
○ South Africans were unable to make informed decisions about issues
that impacted their daily liies and were more susceptble to
propaganda
○ Laws allowed for selectie prosecuton, partcularly of anyone critcal
of the goiernment
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 National Party government
● Implicatons for Media ethics:
○ Self-regulaton was not the result of upholding professional
standards, but was instead the result of goiernment pressure
○ Codes of conduct were reiised to refect the expectatons of the
goiernment rather than of the profession or of the people
○ Rather than focusing on improiing the profession, the media were
preoccupied by warding off censorship, stricter legislaton, and
punishment

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 Analyzing the NP
●Gov.
Now that we haie looked at the background and policies of the
preiious goiernment in terms of media regulaton, what can
you say about the goiernment in terms of:

● 1. Freedom
● 2. Equality
● 3. Order
 Watch:
● Watch the iideo on Blackboard called “Black Wednesday” to
hear the experiences of journalists/actiists during Apartheid

● (You will not be assessed on this iideo, so if you struggle with

connectiity, do not stress)