Statement: Dasnois Vs. Survè in the fight for Press Freedom
On Monday 9 May Right2Know will picket outside the Cape Labour Court’s hearing of the landmark press freedom case when fired Cape Times Editor, Alide Dasnois, will test the right of editors to publish material which may be contrary to the public or private interests of the media owners.
The case dates back to 6 December 2013 when Dr Iqbal Survè removed Dasnois as editor of the Cape Times without any notice or due process after she published a news article covering the Public Protector’s findings that another of Survè companies, Sekunjalo Marine Services Consortium, had benefited from the irregular issuing of a tender by the Fisheries Department.
Survè is the CEO of Sekunjalo Holdings, the controlling shareholder of Sekunjalo Independent Media, owners of Independent Newspapers. Survè’s firing of Dasnois demonstrates very publicly the threat to press freedom posed by media owners who put their commercial interests ahead of media workers’ rights to freedom of expression and the public’s right to know.
The implicit threat is that any media worker producing anything the owners disagree with or dislike does so at the risk of being fired. Dasnois’ firing has created a chilling effect among the editors and journalists in the Independent Group and beyond.
This chilling effect is all the greater in the context where commercial media owners are retrenching journalists, increasing the workloads of remaining workers and starving them of the resources they need to do their jobs. The result is a decline in the quality of editorial content as the remaining media workers battle to meet their ethical commitments as, with less time to undertake research, they must increasingly rely on press statements from the public relations industry and official sources to generate content.
Dasnois’ is not an isolated case. In the last year we have seen a string of resignations of editors from major national newspapers, most notably the Mail&Guardian and Business Day, amid rumours of editorial interference from management and owners. In a recent statement SANEF raised the concern “of direct proprietal/managerial interference in editorial decision-making processes and indirectly through the blurring of the lines between advertising and editorial” and called on owners and managers to stop internefering in the work of editors.
The Right2Know Campaign asserts that the right to press freedom is primarily the right of media workers practicing within their ethical code. It is the responsibility of media owners to support and resource media workers to practice independent journalism without fear and exercise their right to press freedom.
Media Transformation and the Right to Communicate
The case also raises critical issues about the lack of transformation in the South African media that, 22 years after the end of Apartheid, remains dominated by four large corporations (of which Survè’s Independent Newspapers is one). With control of over 80% of all print circulation, these corporations pose a significant threat to press freedom, irrespective of their racial composition or party political affiliation.
As inequality deepens and social cohesion falters, South Africa needs a media that can offer expression to the full range of voices and facilitate the substantive and complex debates about the social and economic future of the country.
Without a more fundamental transformation than many imagine – including a greater diversity of ownership and non-commercial media that can serve the marginalised – the media will remain largely the voice of an economic elite.
Government’s use of public sector investment funds to purchase Independent Newspapers for Iqbal Survè has failed to address the structural concentration of ownership, resulting only in a new section of the elite threatening editorial independence in their narrow interests.
The Right2Know reiterates our call on government to explore more aggressive anti-trust measures to limit the dominant corporations and to promote mechanisms to enhance the sustainability and independence of public broadcasting and community media – ensuring that access to press freedom is enjoyed by more South Africans.
In conclusion
After her firing, Dasnois joined the fledgling news team at Ground Up and has made an important contribution to media diversity in South Africa, giving a voice to marginalised citizens and breaking many stories that would otherwise be ignored by the commercial press.
The Right2Know Campaign stands in solidarity with Dasnois and all media workers who continue to serve the public’s right to know despite growing job insecurity and the media owners who too often put profit before the public good.
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For Comment:
Micah Reddy (R2K Right to Communicate Organiser): 083 297 3444
Ghalib Galant (R2K WC Coordinator): 084 959 1912
