Sema Fonkem 16/12/2024

How Sunday Times dishonored the South African Press code between 2011 and 2016 as per SANEF’s report of 2021.

The SANEF report of 2021 on Sunday Times involves the investigation into a series of stories that were published and  retracted by the Sunday Times from 2011 to 2016. These publications include accusations of police killings in Cato Manor in Kwa-Zulu Natal Province, and the illegal deportation of  Zimbabweans to face judicial executions in their home country (also known as the Zimbabwe Rendition) that were written by senior journalists. Another story that is relevant in the SANEF Report of Sunday Times unethical practice is the South African Revenue Service rogue unit  which was first published in 2014 and questioned if the unit’s activities were lawful and authorised by SARS top management. These stories show how Sunday Times eroded public trust by disregarding the credibility required from journalists and undermining the South African press code. This essay will also cover factors that led to the unethical practices at the Sunday Times.

Ethical lapses that were recurring and concurrent in the Sunday Times publications

1. Inaccuracies in the stories

a. Cato Manor series from 2011 to 2015

Sunday Times labeled the Cato manor as a Death Squad to use an attractive headline to pull readers towards the article. Sunday Times editor, Bongani Siqoko admitted in 2018 Sunday Times publication that they also did not report that out of the 45 killings, 6 of the killings during the taxi conflicts were justified in court. Reporting that General Johan Booysen was fully responsible for the Cato Manor operation was also inaccurate because there were other commanders responsible for the unity. The publication also used photographs that were not linked to the Cato Manor case in the 2011 publication as reported by Times Live in 2018.

b. SARS Rogue Unit

There was no evidence that linked Pravin Gordhan as the SARS commissioner directly to the Rogue Unit. During the call to probe Gordhan over SARS spy saga, he was no longer serving as SARS commissioner.  These were just mere speculations that were published by the Sunday Times. The Sunday Times had in its articles stated that the KPMG findings were final even though the report was just a draft that still required SARS response. The Press Ombudsman also found that this was inaccurate, misleading and unfair (Daily Maverick, 2015).

c. Zimbabwe Renditions from 2011 to 2015

There was no proof that South African Police Service (SAPS) unlawfully collaborated with Zimbabwe security agents to illegally deport Zimbabwean criminals and that Lieutenant-Colonel Lesley Maluleke acted on his own in facilitating the process of the illegal deportation of the suspects (SANEF, 2021, P.156).

2. Right to reply

Sunday Times did not issue out a pre-publication material to SAPS, SARS and the Cato Manor unit to reply to all the allegations before their final publication. The newspaper should have also provided a copy of the KPMG report in advance to SARS for review and give Pravin Gordhan and all other accused parties a chance to reply. Without this, it was unfair to expect meaningful comment from Gordhan (Times Live, 2021).

3. Accountability

There was also an issue of time lapse in the duration which Sunday Times took to reply and take accountability for its wrongful publications.

a. Cato Manor case

First apology was only issued by Sunday Times six years later in October 2018 (SANEF, 2021, P.157).

b. SARS Rogue Unit case

Sunday Times only started to make apologies to Pravin Gordhan one year after in December 2015 and another apology later in April 2016 (SANEF, 2021, P.158).

c. Zimbabwe rendition

An apology and retraction had be done by 2018 by the Sunday Times (The Conversation, 2019).

Causes of unethical practice at the Sunday Times from 2011 to 2016 when the stories were published

1. Financial challenges

Due to financial challenges, Sunday Times did not recruit the service of a particular senior editor who was assigned to the Investigative unit. Without proper scrutinisation and editorial control, journalists can be influenced by external factors such as political influence and sensationalism (SANEF, 2021, P.155).

2. Poor editorial procedures

When news stories do not go through procedures such editorial interrogation by an appointed editor for stories of this magnitude, there is bound to be problems of fact-checking as some journalists become lazy and negligent and this led to the inaccuracies and overstating of facts in the different stories that were published by the Sunday Times. Leaving the responsibility of editorial control to the National editor who was overload with work was also wrong decision by Sunday Times (SANEF, 2021, P.155).

3. Pressure to produce front page news

Sunday Times investigative unit was expected to come up with huge news stories every week to generate revenue and increase Sunday Times readership and due to this work overload, the journalists may be have been influenced to produce stories that were not properly verified and fact checked. Over the years, there has been a rise in the competition within the online news publishing space and this competition is partly based on timeliness where by news outlets want to be the first to break the news to the public. This pressure limits the amount of research that is done by journalists. The advent of social media also fuels misinformation and it is mounting pressure on journalists to deliver content that is readable but not informative enough (SANEF, 2021, P.156).

4. Failure to investigate facts

Sunday Times journalists overstated allegations as facts because they failed badly in further investigating facts which the newspaper reports relied on for the publication of these stories (The Conversation, 2019).

To further understand the ethical lapses at the Sunday Times during the publications of Cato Manor, Zimbabwe Rendition and the SARS Rogue Unit from 2011 to 2016, here is a list of the South African Press Codes and how the Sunday Times went against them.

1. Accuracy

For journalists to serve the public with ethical journalism, they have to be accurate and fair. If journalists become open to aspects of bias, their credibility is negatively affected and this means that the public cannot turn to them for balanced, fair and accurate information. To be accurate, journalists must verify facts before publishing them. This can be done by interviewing multiple sources before validating any information such as dates, places, name spelling and the occurrence of an event. If the news is not accurate, it also means that journalists have not been honest in their work and thus they write content that promotes misinformation (Filak 2022, PP.279-280).

Sundays Times was involved in overstating allegations as facts throughout their publications. The Sunday Times did not follow proper verification procedures and failed to investigate facts. They failed to investigate the facts that caused major contradictions in their narratives. The pattern in which the allegations were reported, consistent lies and distorted facts did not serve public interest (SANEF 2021, PP.169-181).

2. Compassion

Most often, journalists do find themselves in situations where they have to put the story above human dignity. When there is lack of empathy, the steps that some journalists take to acquire content for their story is not well thought of and this ends up putting them in a negative position with the public. Lack of compassion is also one of the major causes of defamation (Filak 2022, PP.282-283).

Sunday Times did not take into consideration the dignity and reputation of parties involved. For example, Pravin Gordhan complained that the articles were based on insinuations and that he did not know about any illegal activities.  Another example is saying Gen Johan Booysen was fully responsible for the Cato Manor operation because they were other commanders and superiors responsible for the unity. This statement caused harm to Booysen’s reputation because it made look like he directly killed the victims (SANEF 2021, PP.162-173).

3. Diversity

Diversity gives readers the opportunity to discover different angles to a story. It offers a variety of facts and information. It also allows journalists to provide plurality by giving a voice to everyone to speak on issues that are important. Journalists are not supposed to rely only on the sources which they have access to but must use external sources and as well as give the subjects in their article an opportunity to speak and share their side of the story (Filak 2022, P.282).

Sunday times did not interview many sources for their publication because they were in a hurry to publish their stories. This made their stories to be one sided as they were no credible sources to corroborate the allegations in their stories (The Conversation, 2019).

4. Conflict of interest

In order to serve the interest of the public, journalists have to avoid things that compromise their judgment and their ability to provide impartial and fair news. Conflict of interest will occur when journalists have two or more incompatible outcomes which jeopardises their loyalty as they have to pick which outcome benefits them the most. Journalists must avoid influence by their personal interests or external factors such as politics and sales revenue if they must provide unbiased and balanced information to the public (Filak 2022, PP.287).

Sunday Times allowed manipulation by sources to influence their stories and as stated by the Press Ombudsman, they completely failed to reflect on the political context in which the stories unfolded and this indicates that their interest which was to make sales caused them to become attached to the stories (SANEF 2021, P.181)

5. Accountability

Journalists are held with high standards by society and are always expected to publish stories without errors. It is also expected that when journalists make mistakes in their publications, they should acknowledge them and make amends with the complainant after receiving a notification of their errors. Accountability does help to sustain media credibility to the public. Besides correcting the errors in a story or retracting the stories, Journalists must also explain what caused of the lapses. The corrections and retractions must be done before the story continues to spread and reaches a much wider audience (Filak 2022, PP.288-289)

In the case of the Zimbabwe renditions, Sunday Times did not offer any apology or retraction until 2018. In the case of the SARS Rogue Unit and the Cato Mano, the acknowledgement to mistakes was not done voluntarily and on time as the Sunday Times had to be pressured to do so through the Press Ombudsman’s ruling of 2015 which criticised the procedures used by Sunday Times to obtain content for its publication (SANEF 2021, P.156).

6. Fairness

In order to be fair, journalists have to give people the opportunity to speak for themselves mostly in cases where other people have spoken against them. This will allow journalists to shine the light on complex issues and share the truth with the public (Filak 2022, P.277)

Sunday Times did not give affected parties adequate time and opportunity to respond to the stories before publication. According to a publication by Times Live in 2021, the media is supposed to give accused parties a chance to respond through a pre-publication material before publishing the final article. For example, in the SARS Rogue Unit case, Pravin Gordhan only received questions just a day before the publication (SANEF 2021, P.163).

What is Herman Wasserman’s concept of ethics of listening and how can it effectively improve journalism practice in South Africa

In Wasserman’s book Ethics of Engagement which deals with the relationship between media, conflict and democracy in Africa, the concept of an ethics of listening seeks to give us an understanding of how listening to the marginalised voices in our society is a key responsibility and position journalists should take in South Africa as a democratic country in order to serve public interest and provide impartial news. This concept is important to exercise because South African media is affected by social and economic polarisation and this inequality does not provide the less privileged in society with an opportunity to be heard in the public sphere. If the media wants a strong public relationship with citizens, the media must treat them with human dignity and give a high level of attention to their stories.  The media must not consider the people’s social status before listening and reporting on their stories. Listening to people will also provide journalists with enough information to report on their daily lives, their struggles and as well as their victories thereby creating a well balance report on the true state of our society. If journalists do not listen to all sides of the story, they will not report fairly and impartially (Wasserman, 2021, P.91).

After reading and having an understanding Wasserman’s ethics of listening as a solution to accurate reporting, I am of the stance that his idea can be effective in South Africa under democracy. The tenets of journalism such as honesty, accuracy, diversity, compassion, independence and accountability can be well reflected in stories and supersede the conditions of social and economic inequality that affect whose stories are told and how the stories are told. There are three ways in which the ethics of listening can be utilised and become effective so that the media can continually gain the trust of the public. Firstly, journalists should always listen and remain curious about the experiences and the perspective of members of the public because the media is serving a diverse society that has low trust on the media. Secondly, Media outlets can partner with community leaders or members who represent the voices of the people in order to continue building trust. This move to meet with community members also gives the people a chance to meet the journalists they listen to. By creating outreach programmes whereby journalists carry out interviews with these community members who have low trust of the media, this will help to provide diversity in voices and gather perspectives about the public and see where relevant changes can be made. The third method is that journalists must me consistent with these meetings with community members and the act of listening so that their news can always reflect people’s real lives. Building trust with the people you want to represent is not a once off thing. People will only start to speak freely and share their perspective when they have become more comfortable with journalists (American Press Institute, 2016).

Listening to both sides of the story, gathering as much facts as possible from a variety of sources is a great way for journalists to remain neutral and write balanced stories that will serve the interest of members of the public who have the right to be correctly informed by the media. The concept of listening will go a long way to help the media build a long lasting and fruitful relationship with the public.