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The Press Freedom Commission today released the findings of its investigation into media regulation in South Africa. The Democratic Alliance (DA) fully supports the report it launched today – the Report on Press Regulation in South Africa.

In February this year, we submitted our proposals to the commission. We proposed 10 solutions under the theme of stronger self-regulation to improve the fairness, quality and journalistic integrity of media in general. We reject all forms of government regulation of the media.

Our proposals included:
Widening the scope of the press ombudsman’s office to deal with third party complaints.
Ensuring that digital media is also covered by the press code.
Strengthening the Press Ombudsman’s ability to enforce fairness and proper journalistic standards.
Improving the quality of journalism in general by encouraging the media to monitor quality, and complaints, more closely.
Strengthening self-regulation and rejecting all forms of government regulation of the media.

We are therefore encouraged to see that the final report included proposals very similar to the ones we suggested, like:
Committing to strengthen a system of co-regulation between the public and the media, without state intervention.
Enhancing the independence of the Press Council of South Africa (PCSA) from the print media industry by moving its offices and increasing representation from the public on the council.
Improving the dispute resolution format, so that complaints can be handled more efficiently with a simplified legal framework.
Widening the criteria for third-party complaints to be in line with Section 38 of the Constitution, giving people the power to take media-related complaints to the courts if a strong case of rights violations can be made.
Stricter punishment for those media outlets who repeatedly fail to obey the press ombudsman.
Greater powers for the ombudsman to enforce corrections, apologies or rights of reply on specific pages, taking up a specific amount of space. This will greatly empower the ombudsman to actually enforce certain rules and punish those media outlets who do not obey them.
Strengthening the right of reply for individuals who receive serious criticism in the media.
Regulatory changes to bring digital media in line with the Press Code.

In order for these suggestions to be implemented, they first need to be endorsed by the South African National Editors Forum (SANEF). We therefore strongly urge the SANEF to approve these measures.

By strengthening the system of self-regulation, the media can increase its credibility without sacrificing editorial independence. This is what we proposed in the first place, and what this report by the Press Freedom Commission essentially calls for.

Ultimately, these proposals will strengthen the quality, integrity and independence of South Africa’s media. It is now up to the SANEF to approve these measures and then for the media to properly staff, resource and manage those entities responsible for self-regulation.