Media+reporting+on+Mbeki+malicious,+Sapa,+City+Press



=Media reporting on Mbeki ‘malicious’=

Sapa, City Press, Johannesburg, 4 November 2007
Johannesburg - Media reporting on President Thabo Mbeki has become a series of ferocious attacks, says Minister in the Presidency, Essop Pahad.

Pahad was speaking on Thursday at an orientation meeting following the formation of the new South African press council.

Pahad said: "Some recent accounts of President Mbeki in the press, it seems to me, have degenerated into the most ferocious, venomous, malicious and unwarranted attacks on an incumbent Head of State in the world.

"The question is why? What does this tell us about standards of journalism and their practice and ethics?" he asked.

Pahad said the relationship between government and the media could be simultaneously co-operative and informed as well as adversarial and temperamental.

The media's right to self-regulate itself without government interference was essential in a democracy, he said.
 * Govt 'should have access to media'**

However, he said the danger was that weak, tepid and ineffectual self-regulation could actually undermine press freedoms.

He said: "Self-regulating machinery for the media in a democracy can never be a whipping horse for government, to use and abuse.

"But at the same time, let it be noted with emphasis, government should have ready access to the Press Council; be given its due as the democratically constituted voice of the people; and should develop reasonable confidence that Press Council mediations and findings will not be biased against government as a matter of course."

Pahad said "the media should appreciate that it is the government, not the media, that faces the polls every five years and enjoys - in South Africa overwhelming - majority support in the country."

Government was a very important player in the public domain.
 * 'Influential reader of print media'**

"It should be seen as an influential reader of print media; and it is indeed the ultimate repository of the security and prosperity of the whole nation.

Government could expect, therefore, that the media take due note of its views, said Pahad.

In what appeared to be a veiled reference to recent media reports about Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang, Pahad said the media should show "at least some respect for those who hold executive office when it comes to matters of personal privacy and elementary dignity".

He said "intemperate attacks launched by a handful of self-appointed gurus" had "irked the mass constituency of government" to the point where he felt the need to appeal to the media and "editors in particular" to use the freedoms they enjoyed responsibly.

Pahad said "shrill voices" claiming that media freedom in South Africa was under threat were doing so "without a shred of evidence".

He said: "Freedom of the media is not held at the pleasure of governments."


 * From: http://www.news24.com/News24/South_Africa/News/0,,2-7-1442_2214249,00.html**

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