Limpopo Premier Cassel Mathale has expressed displeasure at the apology to him published by the Sowetan newspaper. The Sowetan has in the worst form of abuse of Freedom of the Press again unashamedly transgressed the Press Code of the South African Press Council in an article written about the Premier and the Health MEC.
The Press Ombudsman found that the paper had published pure inaccuracies about the allegations of corruption in the Limpopo provincial administration. The paper falsely stated that documents containing evidence of corruption against former Limpopo Health MEC, Meriam Segabutla were handed to Premier Mathale for him to take action but failed to act. The paper further labeled the Premier “deaf” in a caption of the picture that accompanied the story.
The deliberate act by the paper to tarnish the image of the Premier and the provincial government unavoidably strengthens the calls for stronger measures to be taken to regulate media reporting to avert such flagrant disregard of the Press Code by unprincipled journalists.
The Premier has also been disappointed by the deliberate false information submitted to the Press Ombudsman by the Sowetan during the Ombudsman’s investigation. The failure of the Sowetan to give the Office of the Premier the right to reply in their article and misinforming the Ombudsman about it, illustrates a blatant effort on the part of the paper to purposefully undermine the integrity of the former Health MEC and the Premier. This deed calls for disciplinary action by the paper against the journalist responsible for the article.
The Office of the Premier regards this practice by the media which is fast becoming prevalent as a serious threat to South Africa’s fledgling democracy and progressive development of the nation.The government of Limpopo supports media freedom in its totality; however it is regrettable that some media houses are abusing this freedom for their own selfish interests.
The Sowetan, despite being fully aware of their pending apology to the Premier, went on to report inaccurately about the Premier during his campaigning for local government elections. The Press Ombudsman is currently handling another complaint that has been lodged by the Premier following the bias and inaccurate reporting that was witnessed during the local government election campaigns.
It is worrying that since the beginning of last year until now, Sowetan has now been found guilty in five cases by the Press Ombudsman and ordered to apologise but does not seem to be too bothered by the sanctions that have been imposed by the Ombudsman.The pattern of reporting by the paper leaves much to be desired.
It is appropriate to conclude that, due to the lack of seriousness on the part of the Sowetan in showing a determination to correct their way of reporting coupled by their continued deliberate inaccurate reporting, the apology by Sowetan should be rejected as nothing but a charade.
For enquiries:
Phuti Mosomane (Limpopo Premier’s Spokesperson)
Tel: 015 287 6083
Cell: 082 729 2783
Source: Limpopo Provincial Government
