Pretoria – The Presidency has welcomed the debate that has ensued following comments by President Jacob Zuma on the role of the media in nation building and balanced reporting.
In his interaction with second-year journalism students visiting Parliament on Tuesday, Zuma said media houses served the profit-making interests of media owners and not those of their readers or audience, and told future scribes to be open-minded when approaching stories in a balanced and truthful manner.
In a statement on Thursday morning, Presidential spokesperson Mac Maharaj said Zuma expected that the matters be discussed in newsrooms on a daily basis to ensure that the business side of the media does not cloud the telling of the South African story, especially as the country heads towards 20 years of freedom.
“Last week for an example, the South African media chose to highlight that South Africa ranked 53rd in the World Economic Forum competitiveness index, however it failed to focus on the fact that our country took first place on the regulation of securities exchanges and second place on the availability of financial services.
“Further, the country ranked second out of the 148 nations for the availability of financing through local equity markets, and there were no prominent recognition of these accomplishments from the media coverage,” he said.
Maharaj said, however, that Zuma appreciated the contribution by some media houses to nation building as mentioned during his meeting with editors, such as the LeadSA project of Primedia and Independent Newspapers, the Touching Lives project of the SABC and ENCA’s Heroes and Against All Odds programmes. – SANews.gov.za
