Johannesburg - The ANC Youth League expressed concern on Friday about the control of the media by counter-revolutionary whites.
“We remain worried by the concentration of media institutions in their various forms in few white hands that have (a) counter-revolutionary agenda,” African National Congress Youth League spokesman Bandile Masuku said in a statement issued ahead of Press Freedom Day on Saturday.
Masuku said the league passed on its “profound gratitude” to journalists who had strengthened democracy. The ANCYL urged journalists to be impartial and truthful.
“We sometimes feel that our journalists are over-reactive and too critical of the ANC-led government, particularly its president.”
Masuku said the league hoped to persuade the ANC to own a newspaper by circulating a discussion paper titled “Communications and the Battle of Ideas” ahead of the party's national congress.
“There is a need for a proper and broader coverage of positive news that the current media houses opt never to publish.”
Masuku said the league was aware of mainly young journalists under “stringent” rules by their bosses to “behave and report in a particular way.
“In time, we shall raise in the public domain these misfortunes of the honest and hard-working journalists.”
Sapa