UNLIKE the below-par attendance at last year's public hearings by the Press Council and the Press Ombudsman to discuss the state of South African journalism, especially print media, the Listening to SA Campaign by the Press Freedom Commission have so far proven to be well attended.

Despite being poorly attended, the written submission assisted the Press Council in improving the South African Press Code in a quest to boost the quality of journalism.

As to whether the current public engagements will be a success depends on the quality of inputs the commission - headed by retired judge Pius Langa - will receive from the public.

Ordinary South Africans, political parties, civil society, faith-based organisations, non governmental organisations, labour and business are all expected to make submissions.

It is important to hear the voices of ordinary citizens who nevertheless have been relegated to letters pages of newspapers and to radio talk shows about the preferred methods of media regulations.

The media has always appointed itself the spokesperson of ordinary South Africans on the basis that they buy newspapers and consume news products.

The Listening to SA Campaign will give the media time to reflect, ponder and evaluate how it has been feeding us with news and how journalists have contributed to most of the criticism against the media in general, and specifically newspaper journalism.

The public has an opportunity to air their views on the form of media regulations - self-regulation,co-regulation, independent regulation and statutory regulation - they would prefer.

Although self-regulation is the best form of regulation, it has come under criticism because the media seems to be accountable to the owners and shareholders; hence the issue of transformation of the media and ownership has been under the microscope.

It has been under scrutiny from certain quarters, notably from the governing party, the ANC.

Justifiably so because there are instances where certain journalists have allowed themselves to be used as political pawns.

Some media houses have sadly contested the rulings taken by the Press Ombudsman.

Penalising errant journalists has also been a thorny issue because the media is allowed to apologise no matter how much damage it has caused.

For instance, journalists who have been found to have taken bribes had been protected to the hilt until they confessed, as it was the case in the Western Cape media-political scandal.

In some instances, some posters and headlines have proven to be misleading. For instance, the much-loathed Jimmy Manyi was vilified and referred to in one newspaper headline as "Dirty Tricks Boss" for merely announcing the conversion of Vuk'uzenzele magazine into a newspaper format.

It is an open secret that Manyi is not the media's darling because of some of his gaffes and battles with the media, but in this instance the media was completely wrong.

Some stories have either been manufactured or written with a certain self-serving angle, instead of covering the facts.

There are stories that make one cringe where the basic tenets of journalism such as objectivity, impartiality, giving all sides of the story and honesty had been thrown out of the window.

Who has forgotten stories of journalists sobbing uncontrollably during the ANC elective conference in Polokwane in 2007?

The media, as the custodian of the public, has played and continues to play a critical and crucial role in safeguarding our hard-earned democracy. The media, especially newspapers, have brought those who abused the public purse down.

I believe that despite the pending Protection of State Information Bill and the Media Appeals Tribunal mooted some years ago, the ANC-led government has no intention of gagging the media because that will be a sad day for our democracy.

The media should be allowed to operate freely and independently because without a vigorous and free press our democracy will be a pipe dream.

But the media has to acknowledge that freedom of the media is not only for the media or owners and shareholders alone, but for us ordinary South Africans.

It should also acknowledge that there are social controls in the newsrooms that hamper quality journalism such as their deadlines, sources and advertising - the blood life of journalism.

Despite those challenges and others, journalists are in their own rights civil activists and should be free to operate without fear or favour. Most importantly, remember all the time that freedom goes with responsibilities.

The Press Freedom Commission is but a step in a right way to promote media freedom and to ensure the media takes stock of how it has been covering news and to allow ordinary people to have a say in how the media should be regulated.

• Sepotokele is a Gauteng-based government communicator and a media trainer attached to the Sol Plaatje Institute of Media Leadership at Rhodes University. He writes in his personal capacity.