Fleet
Street mourns after Grand Prix boss Max Mosley wins privacy case – but are the
tears for freedom or profit?
There’s
been a prolonged bout of breast beating, wailing and gnashing of teeth amongst the
The real scandal
is the meal those press have made about their so called “loss of media
freedom”. The
The Sun called the ruling a "dark day
for British freedom" and vowed to fight on for the public interest, while
The Daily Mail reported that it was a "good day for the grubby and
corrupt" saying that "press freedom and parliamentary democracy in
Britain are significantly diminished."
A sole voice of
sanity in the debate was The
Guardian who put the real issues in perspective. The Guardian pointed out that
the tabloid’s extreme self interest had skewed the apparent ‘public interest’. In a scathing attack on The World its
editorial read: “Since the judgment, there has been much hand-wringing about
the freedom of the press. Most of it is self-serving. The damage to the press
has not been done by Mosley, or the law, but by the practices of the News of
the World.”
There are many
forces shaping the media agenda both locally and abroad, but perhaps the most
fierce
is commercial. In and age of cheque book journalism, the tabloid vulgarly
repositions commercial interest as “public interest”. Are tabloids really interested
in the public right to know, or is their lens focused more closely on the
celebrity skin of privacy to desperately and salaciously surge sales?
Since when did
Britney Spears’ exposed genitalia or the exact manner in which David Beckham
fills out his Y-fronts constitute public interest? The real issue here is a
tabloid that through reckless reporting made the introduction of stringent
privacy laws in the
While I don’t deny
tabloids have their place in society, they are at times their own worst enemy. Tabloids
that have embraced the crass pursuit of celebrity sensation employ a style of ‘churnalism’
largely devoid of investigation. They have largely lead the march into
commercialism – the new print media compass for finding a way out of the
economic downturn. Together with media selling their souls to the commercial
agenda, celebrity tabloids are helping to replace the religious, cultural,
community and the other values that once held societies together with vacuous
commercial values. And they do so pious in their pursuit of the so called ‘public
interest’.
Thankfully South
African tabloids like The Daily Sun play a more civic role by strongly featuring
community stories. Sure, they’re not everyone’s cup of tea, but they give voice
to the poor and marginalised who struggle against spiralling food prices, lack
of service delivery, crime and other issues our leaders in their comfortable
residences don’t have to deal with.
There’s a real
danger our media are cutting their own Faustian contracts and will be hit with
a double punch. Not only are we seeing increased commercial content as a
strategy for dealing with the economic downturn (look out for more advertorials
alongside editorial and ‘innovative’ ad formats from Naspers print titles) but
political interference is reaching new heights. On the commercial front
compromising ad formats, blurring editorial with advertising, and sacrificing
content integrity to sponsored media is a great seduction for a press squeezed
by an advertising recession. There are local magazines that sell front pages to
CEOs without specifying it is a paid for placement while others parade paid
content as special features, white pages and case studies. If one lesson can be
learnt from the
While the one
punch that is hitting local media is commercial, the other is political. According
to Raymond
Louw a SANEF study shows that government has become obstructive in dealing
with the media. While they were falling over themselves to get to the media in
1994, they have now become sullen and withdrawn. The Promotion of Access to
Information Act is used to avoid giving journalists information, phone calls
are not returned, and emails deleted without being answered. It appears
government communicators have harnessed an arsenal of ploys to try squash
stories, kill stories or otherwise influence the media agenda. Then there is
the issue of the media tribunal, Film and Publications
Amendment Bill, National
Key Points Act and the Protection
of Information Bill. Singly and collectively they have a profound impact on
the freedom of the media in
At this watershed
moment in our media history perhaps the tabloids do have a crucial role to
play. If they wanted to do something really useful they could forgo one more
story of Amy Winehouse’s drug problem and tell the voting public what would
happen if these repressive media bills do become laws and the South African
press is no longer free.

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