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South Africa: Editors to Debate 'Negative' Image
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Business Day (Johannesburg)
20 May 2008
Posted to the web 20 May 2008
Glenda Daniels
Johannesburg
NEGATIVE reporting on SA , and the government's alleged failure to communicate its successes are some of the issues to be discussed by media and politic al heavyweights this week.
Africa head of Agence France Presse (AFP) Isabel Parenthoen said the biggest problem the international media faced in SA was access to information from the government.
"There is also paranoia with the way the government reacts to questions, with a denial to everything. They think we are just stupid, and we are often called racists," she said.
Parenthoen will be among several speakers at a two-day International Media Forum SA (IMFSA) conference starting tomorrow in Johannesburg.
This second IMFSA conference will bring together editors from international news agencies, South African editors, business, the government and the African National Congress (ANC) to discuss and debate, among other issues, how SA is portrayed in the media and whether the media is free to report what it wants.
Speakers will include editors and bureau chiefs from the BBC , CNN, AFP, CNBC, Reuters, the Financial Times and The Economist.
Other speakers will be Mail & Guardian editor Ferial Haffajee, Business Day editor Peter Bruce, government communications agency head Themba Maseko, Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad and ANC deputy president Kgalema Motlanthe.
The international media has reported extensively in the past month on xenophobic attacks in the country and SA's reaction to the Chinese arms ship destined for Zimbabwe.
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Maseko did not respond to several messages to take the opportunity to address media allegations of weak government communications.
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