Ombudsman ruling a victory for accurate reporting

We were very satisfied by the Press Ombudsman ruling re the complaint jointly laid last year by the Board and SAZF against The Star. This substantially upheld our objections, namely that two news reports had grossly misrepresented what South Africa’s official policy was concerning arrest warrants issued by Turkey against four IDF commanders. The complaint on the same issue lodged against the Cape Times by the SAZF (Western Cape) was also upheld. Our press statement on the ruling can be viewed on our Facebook, while for the full finding, visit www.presscouncil.org.za. Generally speaking, we do not look to go to war with the media, preferring rather to maintain amicable channels of communication through which to address differences when that do arise (usually through the paper concerned publishing a counter view. In this case, we felt that the breach of accepted journalistic standards by the reporter concerned was sufficiently egregious to warrant making an approach to the Press Council. The outcome has reaffirmed that while media independence is non-negotiable, the media itself must strive to uphold appropriate standards of accuracy and fairness in its news reporting.