weekly newspaper.
The long-awaited SANEF-commissioned report on media ethics and credibility has surfaced, with some far-reaching recommendations. But the report, which is more than 300 pages long, has one big flaw, or gaping hole, or lacuna, to use legal parlance, if you like: the Independent Newspapers group was hardly covered. This is the country’s biggest print company and it does not belong to the Press Council of South Africa.
The impetus for the inquiry into ethics and credibility was The Sunday Times debacle of three sets of stories between 2011 and 2016: the SARS “rogue unit”, the Cato Manor “death squads” series and the Zimbabwe “renditions” pieces – for which it had to retract and apologise. The Sunday Times, which subscribes to the Press Council, abided by the Ombud’s decisions and its then editor, Bongani Siqoko, apologised in 2018. The brief to the panel was to cover all news media (except for the SABC, which was already engaged in an inquiry) and not just The Sunday Times.