Is the ANC right about press regulation? Research says ‘NO’.

Two weeks ago the Media Policy and Democracy Project launched its most recent research report, this time tackling the now thorny issue of press regulation in South Africa. The aim of the report is to measure the main arguments of critics of the press regulatory system, most notably those of the ANC, against hard statistics, numbers and facts. What the report finds is that many of the ANC’s criticisms of the press council system cannot be substantiated against the stats. The report is all the more significant, since at its recent NGC conference the ANC, again voiced its commitment for establishing a Media Appeals Tribunal.

The administrative system of accountability for journalistic ethics in South Africa, the Press Council of South Africa (PCSA), has been the subject of scrutiny since 2007, but most especially since 2010. Throughout 2011 we witnessed the Press Council’s internal process of review, and in 2012, the Press Freedom Commission – both were attempts to strengthen the system, improve its functionality, make it more accessible to the reading public, and to find answers to the critics of the system who accused it of being “toothless”.

In 2007 the ANC resolved to investigate what it called a Media Appeals Tribunal for the regulation of the print media, reiterated this call again in 2010, and again most recently in 2015 after its NGC conference. So, the debate surrounding whether the Press Council is indeed the most effective body to regulate the print media is still very much on the table at present.

During the ongoing national conversation on press regulation, at various times and on various platforms, different engagers in this debate have posed several different questions about the functionality of the system, its efficacy and its appropriateness for South Africa. Little of this discourse is, however, based on empirical and/or scientific evidence, statistics, study or fact.

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