Fourth Estate needs to revisit values

The Fourth Estate - better known as the media industry - wields significant indirect social influence.

But fulfilling the role as the voice of the people brings with it significant responsibility.

One of the core values all media houses are supposed to adhere to is that of impartiality.

No matter what the personal opinions or beliefs of editors and journalists may be, they may never allow these to compromise the integrity of the newspapers, radio or television stations they work for.

News coverage must always be fair, reflecting both sides of the coin on any issue, be it political or matters of public interest.

The populace must be provided with all the relevant information, from which they themselves must form their own opinions.

Good, that’s the theory - but what is the modern day reality?

In recent times, Donald Trump happened.

The day he took office he spat on the Fourth Estate, either out of ignorance or a self-destructive sense of untouchable self-importance.

If you declare war on the media, they will eventually kill you - not with biased dissemination of untruths, but simply by presenting facts on a consistent basis.

And the Trumpet obliged, giving them so much ammunition to work with they didn’t even have to try.

Yet, some lost their heads and simply could not resist compromising the principle of neutrality.

One always admired CNN as a reliable news source, but their hatred of The Donald, especially during the run-up to this month’s election, took on a disturbing tone.

Their presenters began bombarding their viewers with such one-sided pontification, that many switched to BBC or Sky in search of impartiality.

But if you thought CNN was bad, Fox News was even worse. The Republican propaganda nonsense they aired was frankly embarrassing.

It is alarming that governments the world over increasingly attempt to force journalists, the voices of the people, to become propaganda agents, failing which the more troublesome ones are even assassinated in some countries - remember Saudi journalist and author Jamal Khashoggi?

And let’s be honest, some sectors of the South African media have never been blameless either.

Despite all the denials, SABC TV News in particular was ‘captured’ by the nationalist government. I know, I worked there.

Nothing has changed, of course, as the current government plays the same game and the cadres in management positions ensure compliance at the state broadcaster.

There are welcome signs of a shift towards neutrality, however, and we must be grateful for eNCA and Newzroom Afrika who stick to the principles to ensure the public is properly informed. In general, our print media also scores well.

I don’t think South Africans truly appreciate the critical role our excellent investigative newspaper and broadcasting journalists play in exposing, among other, fraud and corruption - or to put it more bluntly, the stealing of the people’s money.

These journalists are also threatened and intimidated, but they stand firm.

And the public should not be duped by the effort to label such journalists as being biased with an agenda to undermine this or that party or targeting individuals.

The presentation of irrefutable facts must never be confused with compromising integrity or impartiality.

But there is a need for the Fourth Estate to reflect and ensure that the movement away from the core values of integrity are brought back in line where necessary.

We owe it to the people.

Recent political events seem to suggest that some major media houses the world over are compromising one of the industry’s most fundamental principles - that of impartiality, writes CARL DE VILLIERS