ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu was captured on television during Zwelakhe Sisulu's funeral at the weekend, making allusions that the current brand of journalism is less progressive and trumped by far by the progressive journalism of the alternative media of the Struggle years.
Mthembu said publications such as the New Nation, edited by the late Sisulu, and the Mail & Guardian of years gone by were progressive.
He wondered what had gone wrong with the present-day Mail & Guardian, which he said had lost its progressiveness. He accused the present journalism of being elitist, whatever that might mean.
In one sense he is right. Some publications of that time, mainly The Citizen, supported the status quo. It was established to counter the so-called communist propaganda of the Rand Daily Mail and The World.
These newspapers and other radical ones earned themselves the ire of the apartheid ruling oligarchy. They were accused of embracing forces bent to on overthrowing the National Party.
The paranoia of the ruling party was delusional and bordered on madness.
But Mthembu is wrong in another sense. His suggestion that there has been a decline in progressive journalism is in fact a reflection of one incapable of appreciating that there are as many views as there are people and that it is the function of the media to reflect those views.
The duty of the media is not to be the ANC's mouthpiece, but to report, reflect, dig up muck and ensure that those fingered for corruption and other unseemly acts are exposed.
If progressive journalism is short-hand for uncritical lapdog journalism, more akin to praise singers for political organisations, or more precisely, the ruling party, I think this would be an antithesis of what journalism is about.
Praise-singing journalism is not progressive.
The World and the Rand Daily Mail were not about praise-singing journalism. If they were, South Africa would not be enjoying the changes we have today. The World' s radical journalists gave a true perspective of what was happening in apartheid South Africa.
And for that, Mr Mthembu, Percy Qoboza had his newspapers closed down and senior journalists were arrested.
The World was anti-establishment and made no bones about its loyalty to justice. Its editorials propagated change and the replacement of apartheid. The newspaper became a catalyst for change.
The World's successor, Sowetan, continued to mirror the aspirations of those opposed to apartheid and who yearned for justice. The newspaper reflected apartheid's excesses and shamed and exposed wrong-doers.
This was progressive journalism, which was not about owing allegiance to the ruling party, but telling the story as the newspaper saw it.
Today, many South Africans are concerned about corruption in high places, particularly among government officials. They are concerned about the executive, particularly President Jacob Zuma, and how he conducts himself.
People are worried about the violence, death and destruction as a result of the reckless exercise of rights by striking workers and wonder where is the union leadership in the midst of so much turmoil and thuggery?
In all this, the media has shown leadership and integrity by providing information and analyses of news. That, Mr Mthembu, is progressive journalism.
- Mdhlela is a freelance writer and an Anglican priest.
'Praise-singing journalism is not progressive'
Lapdog journalism will never wash, Mr Jackson Mthembu
ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu was captured on television during Zwelakhe Sisulu's funeral at the weekend, making allusions that the current brand of journalism is less progressive and trumped by far by the progressive journalism of the alternative media of the Struggle years.
Mthembu said publications such as the New Nation, edited by the late Sisulu, and the Mail & Guardian of years gone by were progressive.
He wondered what had gone wrong with the present-day Mail & Guardian, which he said had lost its progressiveness. He accused the present journalism of being elitist, whatever that might mean.
In one sense he is right. Some publications of that time, mainly The Citizen, supported the status quo. It was established to counter the so-called communist propaganda of the Rand Daily Mail and The World.
These newspapers and other radical ones earned themselves the ire of the apartheid ruling oligarchy. They were accused of embracing forces bent to on overthrowing the National Party.
The paranoia of the ruling party was delusional and bordered on madness.
But Mthembu is wrong in another sense. His suggestion that there has been a decline in progressive journalism is in fact a reflection of one incapable of appreciating that there are as many views as there are people and that it is the function of the media to reflect those views.
The duty of the media is not to be the ANC's mouthpiece, but to report, reflect, dig up muck and ensure that those fingered for corruption and other unseemly acts are exposed.
If progressive journalism is short-hand for uncritical lapdog journalism, more akin to praise singers for political organisations, or more precisely, the ruling party, I think this would be an antithesis of what journalism is about.
Praise-singing journalism is not progressive.
The World and the Rand Daily Mail were not about praise-singing journalism. If they were, South Africa would not be enjoying the changes we have today. The World' s radical journalists gave a true perspective of what was happening in apartheid South Africa.
And for that, Mr Mthembu, Percy Qoboza had his newspapers closed down and senior journalists were arrested.
The World was anti-establishment and made no bones about its loyalty to justice. Its editorials propagated change and the replacement of apartheid. The newspaper became a catalyst for change.
The World's successor, Sowetan, continued to mirror the aspirations of those opposed to apartheid and who yearned for justice. The newspaper reflected apartheid's excesses and shamed and exposed wrong-doers.
This was progressive journalism, which was not about owing allegiance to the ruling party, but telling the story as the newspaper saw it.
Today, many South Africans are concerned about corruption in high places, particularly among government officials. They are concerned about the executive, particularly President Jacob Zuma, and how he conducts himself.
People are worried about the violence, death and destruction as a result of the reckless exercise of rights by striking workers and wonder where is the union leadership in the midst of so much turmoil and thuggery?
In all this, the media has shown leadership and integrity by providing information and analyses of news. That, Mr Mthembu, is progressive journalism.
'Praise-singing journalism is not progressive'
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