Internal Press Ombudsman for Independent Media

JOVIAL Rantao, a highly respected senior editor with Independent Media, the publishers of the DFA, has been appointed as the company’s internal Press Ombudsman with immediate effect.

As of today,the DFA is no longer subject to the Press Council and readers with complaints are requested to forward all and any complaints to Rantao by emailing complaints@inl.co.za

Independent Media has taken this step to protect itself from the double jeopardy which has existed because of the absence of a waiver within the Press Code which governs complaints to the Press Council.

The waiver was dropped from the Press Code in 2012.

The waiver clause ensured that complainants who selected to bring their complaints to the Press Ombudsman did so by waiving their rights to sue Independent Media in court, creating a quicker and far cheaper way of effectively dealing with complaints.

When this clause was dropped, Independent Media (and every other media house which is subject to the Press Council) became exposed to the double jeopardy of both processes, where complainants could then use any information gathered during the press ombud process, against the paper in a court of law.

This has led to an incredibly time consuming and excessively expensive process for the company.

Services

Independent Media has in fact not been a member of the Press Council effectively since the demise of the industry body, Print Media South Africa in 2015, but has continued to use the services of the press ombud as part of our commitment to self regulation and our opposition to state regulation and the mooted Media Appeals Tribunal, while all the time lobbying to get the waiver reintroduced.

The failure to achieve this after two years of negotiations has led to the decision to appoint our own ombud – with a waiver clause regarding future litigation against the company. Should readers wish to take the matter to court instead, they still have every right to do – the difference is that they can no longer do both.

The Internal Ombudsman will work much the same way as the Press Ombud has worked, with the actual mechanism of lodging complaints, the appeals process and other attendant processes to be announced in due course.