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• Quarterly prizes for the PSL

This has resulted in Sanef seeking a meeting with the PSL to voice its concerns about this competition and its potentially corrosive impact on journalism and journalist ethics.

The competition, announced by PSL chairman Irvin Khoza on Friday, seeks to reward journalists who correctly predict the outcomes of football games and the league with prize money of up to R500,000.

In announcing the competition, Khoza stated that "the PSL has extensively consulted and enquired if this competition involving journalists that cover its space raises any ethical issues". He said this consultation process had concluded that "just like journalism awards recognise and reward journalists without compromising the integrity of the profession, this competition does not compromise the ethics and integrity of the journalists covering the Absa Premiership".

But Sanef has placed on record that it was not party to this "extensive" consultation process, nor was it aware of other credible industry bodies that were consulted about the competition.

"Had Sanef been consulted, we would have made it clear to the PSL that the competition undermines the ethics of our profession," said Sanef in a statement.

"It (the competition) seeks to turn journalists who use their skills to report and analyse football into gamblers. Genuine journalism awards reward excellence and hard work.

Accordingly, this type of competition would amount to a breach of the section 3 of the Press Code dealing with the independence and conflicts of interest, particularly 3.1 and 3.2. "(Section) 3.1 says the press shall not allow commercial, political, personal or other non-professional considerations to influence or slant reporting ..."

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Sat May 25 17:28:10 SAST 2013 ::

Aug 14, 2012

golezwa

thanks sanef, this initiative by PSL was just out of the way, this money altogether with 1.5Q- innitiative should be given to NFD, now PSL decided to split with them
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Aug 14, 2012

Deepstick-C

Its pointless and waste of money...can we not put that R500K per year towards development especially in rural schools?

I dont see how that will make PSL competitive in anyway...
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Aug 14, 2012

tpaz

I agree with SANEF.
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Aug 14, 2012

T'dpole

But guys, what ethics do journalists in this country have? whether in football or elsewhere, they just write and they write nonsense and we know it, that is just a way to enciurage them to start being real journalists, investigate before writing..........i mean don't be surprised if you read Sowetan tomorrow and they say The Naturena Zebras FC have signed Lifa Qosha as their new coach or they have won the league with 29 games to go and you call that ethics...........................
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Aug 14, 2012

Kgaoza606

Got a lot of respect for Mr Khoza but he is now taking things too far. This gambling-guess work is definately going to compromise the ethics and qaulity of commentating in our beautiful football. I'm sure dat kind of money can be used in other areas to improve the profession of commentators instead of just splashing out money for pure geuss work, even a 5 year old can accuratley predict with pure luck, and dat doesn't say anything about the hard work boBaba Mthethwa, Sizwe Mabena,etc, are doing. Pls Khoza review ur decision, these guys work very hard, rather invest in all of them in some way...
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Aug 14, 2012

pedi4life

mr khoza take that money and start a professional woman 's league .our national soccer team is failing so please help with that money
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Aug 14, 2012

ComradeAK

To make our League more competitive, increase the number of teams from 16 to 18, get sponsors for first division. Stop these whole nonsense Q1, Q2,Q3,Q4
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Aug 14, 2012

Makhosini0408

@T'dpole
I agree.

Gutter journalism is the order of the day and the fat cats at Sanef wants us to believe that they are ethical, my foot.
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Aug 14, 2012

Fanle

I think Irvin Khoza n the crew must get their house in order. First it was this rubbish Carling Cup thing and now this Journalists lottery. I mean if you have the money ongazi uzoyenzani, rather benefit the main stakeholders which is the fans. R500k is a lot of money to just give away. An NFD club that wins the league get R300k but PSL has R500k to just give away for gambling. Very interesting....
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Aug 14, 2012

Bra_A

Why this initiative was not done to NDF as well? R 6 million will make NFD attractive and will reduce cheating.

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