False story about decuplets was a low point for journalism: how to fix the damage theconversation.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from theconversation.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Our aim remains to provide accurate, truthful and balanced reporting
As a publication that subscribes to The Press Code of Ethics and Conduct for South African Print and Online Media (Press Code), we are serious about reporting the news accurately and fairly.
This publication acknowledges the importance of the right to freedom of expression contained in section 16 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa, 1996. With this right comes great responsibility.
“As journalists we commit ourselves to the highest standards, to maintain credibility and keep the trust of the public. This means always striving for truth, avoiding unnecessary harm, reflecting a multiplicity of voices in our coverage of events, showing a special concern for children and other vulnerable groups, and exhibiting sensitivity to the cultural customs of their readers and the subjects of their reportage, and acting independently.” – Preamble to the South African Press Code.
It is little wonder that some TB vaccine researchers suffer from a rare syndrome that understandably threatens their mental health. Symptoms include frustration, impatience, irritability, seemingly inexplicable rage and, in the least resilient, despair.
It is called VJS or Vaccine Jealousy Syndrome in 99% of cases associated with the sudden appearance and out of kilter funding of, (in an astoundingly short 12 months), Covid-19 vaccines.
Never ones to miss an opportunity, even though they carry the research begging bowl, the TB crew have started leveraging the remarkable scientific advances that produce vaccines with up to 95% efficacy against Covid-19. Even so, researchers say that based on current information it will take up to five years for the top TB vaccine candidate, M72, to complete sufficiently large Phase III trials.
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Today the panel led by retired judge Kathleen Satchwell released the report of the commission of inquiry into ethical challenges facing South African journalism and officially handed it over to the South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF).
The report by Satchwell and fellow panel members – veteran journalist and author Rich Mkhondo and award-winning journalist and former Fulbright Hubert H. Humphrey Fellow Nikiwe Bikitsha was commissioned by SANEF in June 2019.
The Inquiry was proactively set up following the events surrounding the publication and subsequent retraction of a series of stories by the Sunday Times between 2011 and 2016, and public debates about reporting and processes followed in newsrooms across the country. The terms of reference of the inquiry were to look at possibilities of ethical lapses within the industry and to find solutions to enhance quality, ethical journalism.
While Covid-19 will continue to make headlines for some time, 2021 will also be a critical year for healthcare reforms in South Africa and for various aspects of the country’s HIV and TB response. These are Spotlight’s top 12 healthcare questions for the year.
1. Can government procure and effectively roll out Covid-19 vaccines?
Providing safe and effective Covid-19 vaccines to as many people as possible and as quickly as possible will be government’s biggest health priority this year. This will in the first place require that we rapidly procure sufficient volumes of the appropriate vaccines. At the time of writing, South Africa has signed up to the COVAX facility (likely to provide doses for around five or six million people) and made a deal with the Serum Institute of India for the AstraZeneca/Oxford University vaccine (doses for around 750 000 people). Much more will be needed to get close to government’s target of vaccinating around 40 million people. Beyond procurement