Executive Officer, Themba Maseko at the Media and Government Communicators
Workshop, Sandton
30 September 2007
The relations between government communicators and the media are
necessitated by the communication responsibilities that both parties have to
society. In fulfilling our roles and responsibilities we are compelled to work
together. Each needs the other the media need the story to tell the people and
the government communicators need to get the story out to the people.
Government has a constitutional obligation to communicate with the people.
It must ensure that the people are informed of its policies and programmes; it
must ensure that the people are aware of their rights and services and
opportunities for improving their lives; it must ensure that the people are
able to effectively participate in policy formulation and other matters of
public interest by making information about such matters available and easily
accessible.
In meeting its communication obligation government engages in various
communication activities. The media offer a very critical platform in this
regard. The media have a significantly important role in facilitating of a free
flow of information between government and the people, thereby helping create
the possibility for the people to participate in the work of government and
hold government accountable.
Government also acknowledges and accept the role of the media as a watchdog
for society keeping government under constant check and subjecting it to
rigorous scrutiny.
It is the view of government that for the media to play its role effectively
it needs to be properly appraised of the work of government and understand how
policies and programmes are formulated and how they impact on the lives of the
people. Journalists need accurate band credible government information to write
balanced reports and intelligent political comment. Access to information and
reliable government sources is of vital importance in this regard.
In our discussions at this workshop we must closely examine our relationship
and identify practical things that we need to do to ensure that both the media
and the government fulfil their responsibilities and obligations to the
people.
As government there are a number of things that we do as part of our
obligation to communicate with the people. There are a few types of media
engagements that we conduct. These include:
* cluster media briefings following the State of the Nation Address where
ministers highlight key cluster priority issues for the year, these briefings
are also used to give more details on the issues covered in the state of the
nation address
* cluster media briefings on the implementation of the programme of action are
held every two months in line with the cycle of clusters reports to the
Cabinet
* post cabinet media briefings are normally conducted by the government
spokesperson and are held after every cabinet meeting to brief the media about
key Cabinet decisions
* the President conducts post mid-year Cabinet Lekgotla briefings
* ministers and senior officials normally brief the media about their
departments' programmes during the budget votes
* other media briefings are conducted by ministers and Director Generals on ad
hoc basis depending on need
* the Department of Foreign Affairs conducts weekly briefings to highlight key
issues relating to South Africa's international relations programme.
Apart from the formal engagements there are informal interactions between
government and the media. These take various forms including media breakfasts,
lunches, dinners and networking forums.
Our assessment is that while these engagements are useful in ensuring that
there is a free flow of information between government and the media, more
could be done to promote more regular and frequent engagement between
government and the media.
Recently the Cabinet approved a proposal by Government Communications (GCIS)
that ministers and senior officials should brief media more frequently and
avail themselves to answer questions about their work. The intention is that
every department must have at least one media briefing session a month.
The issue of the Presidential Press Corps (PPC) is also receiving attention.
Our view is that the PPC as it was originally conceptualised may not work and
that what we need is a government wide press corps which would facilitate
regular interaction between Ministers and senior officials and the media. We
are currently engaged with South African National Editor's Forum (Sanef) and
some of the political journalists in a process that would lead to the
introduction of the new press corps. We are also studying a similar model in
Germany to see how it works and what aspects of it can be copied.
In 2005, GCIS commissioned research among journalists in order to improve
the media liaison function of government communicators. The research revealed
important lessons and pointed areas that needed attention in our media liaison
function.
Here are some of the things that the research told us:
Avoid an adversarial relationship:
There needs to be an alignment of government communication and the media
behind common objectives. A 'them' and 'us' mentality is counterproductive. The
culture needs to be one of information-sharing, trust and respect.
Understand the needs of the different media types:
Part of the professional standards required from government communicators is
that they need to know the different platforms they can harness to deliver a
message.
Understand the importance of journalists' deadlines:
Be accommodating and assist in meeting the deadlines. Understand the
immediacy of daily newspaper, radio and television news deadlines.
Be accessible:
Government communicators have to be accessible to the media to share
information. Ministers and senior officials should be more available to the
media.
Consistent professional standards:
Government communicators should consistently reflect professional standards
in their work.
Government spokespersons are not bodyguards:
It is not the job of government communicators to protect their principals
but to rather be their 'voice'.
Contact and recognition:
The media wants more contact and recognition at the senior level of
government. The key findings of the research have been incorporated in the
government communicator's handbook which guides the work of every government
communicator.
The handbook also includes the following basic instructions:
* know the policy positions of your department and articulate them
well
* be professional, efficient and enthusiastic
* know the journalists who work in your field and avoid limiting your
relationship to that of a voice over the telephone
* develop an understanding of the different kinds of media and customise your
service to journalists to suit each medium
* make time to visit newsrooms to understand the news process and how decisions
about what is newsworthy are made
* find out about deadlines since each newspaper, radio station or television
station has its own deadlines. As a general rule, print media will have longer
deadlines than broadcast and online media. This means that a radio journalist
will be working on hourly or even half-hourly deadlines compared with the print
journalist who may have a day or longer to write an article.
We have taken all these steps because as government we attach high
importance to the building and maintenance of professional working relations
with the media so that both government and the media can fulfil their
respective responsibilities to the people.
Our presentation focussed on what we are doing as government and how we can
improve our work to contribute to healthier working relations between
government and the media. I deliberately did not talk about the concerns that
we have about the media, and I know my colleagues from government will have a
lot to say about that during the discussions, because we expect the media
presentation to address that and tell us what is being done to improve these
working relationship.
I am certain that at the end of our discussions we will have agreed on the
practical things that both government communicators and journalists must do to
ensure that we both fulfil our responsibilities and obligations to the
people.
Issued by: Government Communications
30 September 2007
