Minister Jeff Radebe: Launch of Press Club of South Africa

Key note address by Minister Jeff Radebe on the occasion of the launch of the new forum for journalists and communication professionals in Cape Town

Programme Director;
Dr Iqbal Survé: Executive Chairman of Independent Media’
Members of the Media and Communications Industry;
Compatriots

Thank you for inviting me to participate in this special occasion as you launch a new Press Club for media and communication professionals. At a time when some of your peers talk of media uncertainty, or a pending threat by government, you have decided instead to launch a platform that will help you shape the kind of industry you want to be a part of, one that will in turn help build the kind of progressive society we all want to live in. And for that I commend you wholeheartedly.

The “Fourth Estate” has survived the various revolutions that saw the overthrow of dictatorship in general and feudalism in particular, to usher in democracy all over the world in the past couple of centuries.

This was recognition of the basic attributes that informs the noble role of the Fourth Estate as integral to the democratisation process both globally and more specifically in our post 1994 dispensation.

My deep appreciation of the role of the Fourth Estate is in this context, which is to buttress the democratisation process. Again it is in this context that it is therefore an honor for me to address you here today.

We are here today to talk about your profession, which is essentially storytelling in one form or other.Indulge me for a moment and allow me to share with you some personal thoughts and opinions.

It has to be that none of us must have this deep feeling that if we were to do nothing else other than to peruse South Africa’s daily and weekend newspapers, listen to the radio, watch TV and keep abreast of social media, we would be quite convinced that these are extraordinary times in which we live.

We must therefore pose to ourselves this critical question on whether our work is consistent with the reality as daily experienced by various sectors of our people.

The media must capture the somber mood when we take economic downturns and the celebratory mood when we achieve our goals in advancing our democratic project to which the Fourth Estate is integral.

You don’t need me to tell you that despite the advances we have made in recent years, our economy, like many other economies around the world, is weathering a tough storm. Just in the last 48 hours, the ratings agency Moody’s has placed us on review for a downgrade, and now more than ever this is a situation that requires all shoulders to the wheel. Our revenue collector, SARS, is attracting some negative publicity.

We look to our universities and we listen to the messages that our students are trying to convey, generally about tuition fees and the need for an overhaul of our institutions.

We look around us at the very worrying drought patterns and the dire consequences that some of our famers are faced with as a result.

Into that mix are added the stories you tell about the country’s dynamic partisan political engagements both inside and outside parliament. And there’s hardly a newspaper edition that sells without detailing some intrigue or other, about some individual or other.

When I put it all together, you, media practitioners, lead me to believe that these are very, very extraordinary times. But as we know, in extraordinary times, the ordinary can take on a glow and wonder of its own.

And I am often reminded these days of the dangers of the single story, as it was so eloquently explained by the Nigerian writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, a few years ago.

Adichie talked about how she had grown up in a comfortable Nigerian family that was attended to by a houseboy, call Fide. Adichie had an image of Fide, a single image, as a poor and needy young man. But she was forced to see him differently when she visited his home in a rural village and saw his family making exquisite baskets out of local straw.

And she realised that by viewing Fide through a single and narrow lens she had misread him entirely. In so doing, she had also missed out on the other aspects of his life, of his story. She missed the good story.

What Adichie was telling us is that there is no such thing as a single, one-dimensional story. Each story is complex in its own right. It has to be, by the very nature of this very complex and fast-changing world in which we live.

Let me be very clear. As I say, I am a staunch believer in the noble role of the Fourth Estate and I also therefore firmly believe in the freedom of the press. But when I read or listen to the coverage provided by some of our media friends, I can’t help but wonder if there is perhaps another side to your stories that I am missing.

Here today you are launching a new press club and I have no doubt that this will help you all in your endeavors to tell the full story, in all its forms and dimensions.

It’s not always easy, though. We are living through a revolution, a digital revolution. And  without doubt  there is none amongst you in this room that is not in possession of some smart phone that is feeding you with news and information from around the world as we speak. How many of you here could imagine doing your job without leaning on information provided by those phones and laptops, not once or twice but several times a day, if not an hour?

Evidence shows us that South Africa’s mobile cellular subscriptions and internet users increased at a rate of 16% per year between 2000 and 2014.  That’s impressive. Our internet penetration is so high that internet usage currently stands at 49 per every 100 users and it ranks better than most middle income countries in the world.

It is notable that as the media and communication industry you were amongst the first movers to embrace this digital revolution to improve interaction and obtain often real-time feedback from the various audiences through social media.

Yet it is prudent that we inhabit this digital space with an open and critical mind, otherwise we will very easily find ourselves trapped in a spiral of unintended consequences associated with untried and tested communication platforms, like the plethora of social media channels that inhabit this digital terrain.

Unlike traditional media, this new media suffers from a lack of quality assurance standards. It doesn’t have an editor to select on your behalf. It is not designed to overcome bias. It doesn’t even have to verify its sources. Essentially everyone with a smart phone is a conveyor of perspectives and information unfortunately without the benefit of the trained mind of a professional journalist.

Therefore its not surprising that one of the prominent weaknesses of the new media is the extent to which some characters can abuse these platforms to advance their malicious ends. A case in point is the proliferation of hate speech and offensive content that sometimes threatens the very fabric of our rights-based, non-racial, non-sexist and democratic society, as we saw earlier this year.

Still, for all its shortcomings, the digital revolution is undisputedly part of our future, and, with some better management, the benefits will surely outweigh the losses as we move forward, particularly for you media practitioners. And I am cetain that through this Forum, you will help give guidance on how we must collectively approach the challenges posed by social media.

Fellow South Africans:

You, as the media, occupy a very special place in our maturing democratic society. You are the purveyors of information. But you are also the voice of the voiceless.

The Bill of Rights creates an enabling environment for the exercise of media expression, and for it to be carried out without any fear, favor or prejudice, as outlined in our Constitution.

It was not by accident that we enacted these freedoms in our Constitution when we drafted it 20 years ago. They are borne out of lived experiences during our struggle for liberation and freedom. Freedom of the press and the media are also central tenets of an open society in which diverse views, opinions and ideas are valued and are allowed to flourish for the advancement of our humanity. These freedoms do not exist as nominal or mere academic postulates, but as basis for the hopes that the material conditions of our people will be improved. It is my viewpoint therefore that the media cannot discard the articles advancing our various freedoms in our constitution without a consideration of the material conditions to which these are intended to speak to.

Hence understandably there are limitations to these freedoms. We cannot advocate any form of hatred that would incite harm, along racial, ethnic, gender or any other lines. We can never tolerate the kind of racial sentiments that were published on various social media outlets in the last few days of 2015.

We can never, ever again condone racist or ethnic chauvinism in our beloved South Africa. As an agent of change and as a critical purveyor of information, I call on the media to help ensure that the project of constructing a non-racial and non-sexist society stays on course.

Whenever you are in doubt about what is and is not acceptable in this regard, call on your peers in this new Press Club. This club provides the kind of platform that is badly needed to have the kind of conversations that will help steer us towards a more inclusive future.

Ladies and gentlemen, also it is my duty here today to remind you that you play a pivotal role in building an active citizenry. When we were drafting the National Development Plan, the NDP, something critical came to light in that: government’s best intentions since 1994 to improve the lives of our people often, and unwittingly of course, led citizens to become more passive in their own development than we might have liked.

The NDP is clear that South Africans must now actively seek opportunities to improve their lot, in every sense, both as individuals and as members of their respective communities. And this means holding government, business leaders and all leaders in society to account for their actions.

But we cannot do this without community media. Your new Press Club, in partnership with the Media Development and Diversity Agency (MDDA) has an important role to play in this regard. Unlike some of you in mainstream media or who work for some of the large media houses, community journalists, particularly those in rural communities, are often volunteers who do not always have resources and networks to practice their craft.  
Some of them do not even have suitable access to the internet or to the international networks that most media houses take for granted.  And yet they are the very foot solders that can ignite the kind of active citizenry that is required. I would dearly like to see this Press Club extend a helping hand to the your community peers wherever possible as they work build a more active citizenry at the grass root levels.

There is an isiZulu saying as popularised by the popular Poet Mzwakhe Mbuli that goes as follows: Ukonakala komuntu ukonakala komndeni, ukonakala komndeni ukonakela komphakathi, ukonakala komphakathi ukonakala kwesizwe.

Essentially, it underlines the critical importance of empowering individual citizens to take responsibility for their own development. 
Because a positive change in an individual contributes to the development of the entire community and therefore to society generally.

Programme Director:

Let my parting note to you be the following: as media and communications practitioners, each and every one of you is a leader in your own right.

Some of you hold more senior positions than others. 
But I encourage all of you, regardless of your ranking, to provide transformative leadership wherever you can in your professional lives.

Here I would like to borrow the words of the NDP.

“Our leaders’ wisdom is ours, because we sense our wisdom is theirs.

They do more than respond to us

They bring new thoughts and ideas

They share with us what they think

They inspire us, because we then seek to aspire with them

With them we renew our world continuously.”

It is also heartening that you have chosen a member of government to deliver today’s keynote address. All too often, you and I, media and government, talk past one another, rather than to one another. But you have started a different kind of conversation. It is refreshing. Long may it continue. It is a conversation that says together we must be patriotic in building a society that is mirrored by the values enshrined in our Constitution.

Of course when we speak of patriotism we do not speak of unqualified agreement with government or any sector in society. But rather that in the balance of contradictions that informs our beautiful rainbow nation,, the common good prevails as amplified in our Constitution amongst others which the NDP seeks to translate into improved material conditions of all our people.

On that note, I wish you all the best in launching this new Press Club.
It is your space. Own it. Enjoy it.

We look forward to hearing more about it in the future. And more of those multi-dimensional stories.

I thank you!

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