Issued by: Office of the Presidency
14 November 2000
Weekend reports about my alleged role in seeking to "derail" the proposed investigation into South Africa's arms purchases are totally devoid of truth. They are a "blanket lie", as the ANC has already observed. They seek to undermine the ANC's commitment to rooting out corruption and fostering good governance.
That is bad enough. But what really worries me is how reputable newspapers with their vaunted attachment to the highest principles of journalism can publish such rubbish, clearly relying on calculated lies by "impimpi" sources within the ANC and without even taking the elementary step of seeking my version of events.
This invades fundamental rules of good journalism whereby, as Katherine Graham of the Washington Post puts it so clearly in her personal history (page 471), there should be scrupulous attention to fairness and detail, and that every bit of information attributed to an unnamed source should be supported by at least one other, independent, source.
This elementary fairness is increasingly being denied to the representatives of a democratic government, and this situation can only be described as a journalistic disgrace. The effect will be to stifle free and critical debate in political quarters, and this will impact severely on all political parties.
It is time that the newspaper houses took stock of their standards of reporting, and revisited the way reputable newspapers go about the serious business of reporting and commenting on public affairs.
The Presidency
Tel. 012-337-5107
Fax. 012-321-8870
Cell. 082-570-550
3
nthabiseng@po.gov.za
Contact: Nthabiseng Rantau