Pretoria – Ethics, posing questions and fact-checking remained the responsibility of trained journalists and sets them apart from the masses.
By applying these principles, journalists would keep in line with the qualities set by the stalwarts of yesteryear who stood up against all odds and reported on issues without fear or favour.
This was according to panellists during the 10th annual Percy Qoboza memorial lecture hosted by the National Press Club and Unisa yesterday. The theme for the lecture was “Why journalism matters. The challenges have changed, but has the core purpose?"
The event was headlined by Press Ombudsman Pippa Green, Sunday Times deputy editor Mike Siluma and Rams Mabote, a digital broadcaster, writer and reputation specialist.
Green said: “Underlying the threats to the financial structure of the print media is the rise of social media and with it the instantaneous, quick and often false news that gets spread on it.
“Proper journalism has to be about accountability. It has to be about verification and about a respect for truth.”
She said there were elements through which journalism could be distinguished. These included truth, loyalty to citizens, discipline of verification and maintaining independence from those they covered.
“It must serve as an independent monitor of power,” said Green, adding the problem with social media was that obligation to the truth and the discipline of verification frequently came second to click-bait, rumour and outright propaganda.
Mabote, in response, said journalists had the opportunity to set the record straight at all costs, just as how Percy Qoboza and his colleagues had done in their time.
He said that generation of journalists earned their stripes by refusing to bow down to sensationalist reporting. “Despite having to follow up on what breaks on social media, journalists have the duty and ability to probe further and analyse.
“We must accept that technology does not destroy jobs, but is an enabler; the days of origin are gone; tech has the upper hand, now and forever,” he said. Journalists were “left with one option and one option only – digitise, digitise, for heaven's sake, digitise. Adapt or die.”
Mabote continued: “Everyone who has a smartphone is a reporter; our job is to go one up probe. We must ask the why. That is our job. If that doesn’t hold it doesn’t publish. We trained for it.”
Qoboza was 50 when he died in 1988 after a career as an influential black South African journalist, author and outspoken critic of the apartheid government.
He had been the editor of several leading anti-apartheid publications and was globally recognised.
The panellists said he had risen above the issues of the time and urged the current generation to follow suit.
The chairperson of the National Press Club, Pretoria News editor Val Boje, said: “Journalism does matter. Times may have changed, but the purpose remains the same. Media today may be operating under different circumstances, but verifiable, accountable journalism remains important.”
She said it was important to produce fearless journalists to follow in the footsteps of the Qobozas who shaped the media space.
Siluma said there was a push to be the first and that introduced tensions in newsrooms where people accepted being first, but being right was more important. “The big difference between journalists and everyone with a smartphone is they are more purveyors of information, while journalists can be held to account.
“We must distinguish between the two journalists must operate at a higher standard, the others can remain no more than purveyors,” Siluma said.
While social media was sometimes useful it could also be destructive. “They may be reporting lies; we should not be bothered by people who are playing in our space; we should rise above that,” he said.
The right of reply and presentation of facts, and the distinction between conveying information and reporting on it had to be of importance, said Green. “Important is right of reply using ‘allegation’ where it is required, simple as that.”
Journalists carried the responsibility to produce the better quality news, no matter who else was producing it.
Mabote said: “That should keep us awake. We must remain greater in a realm now occupied by many.”
Siluma added there had been a lot of recognition for social media and mainstream was also occupying that space in blogs and other mediums, “but the role of mainstream is to be the place to go to if you want credible news”.
“We must never downplay the destructive force of bare reporting.
“People must have a cross-checking mechanism for credibility, and so the role of mainstream is to play as a backstop for information,” Siluma said.
The panellists agreed practising journalists had to stick to age-old methods of working to remain credible.
Pretoria News