INDEPENDENT Media’s publications are set to leave the Press Council of SA (PCSA) after it threatened to expel the company.
Independent Newspapers chief executive officer Mohammed Hoosain notified the PCSA of the company’s decision.
“Firstly, we must emphasise that Independent Media is not intimidated by the threat of expulsion. As an organisation committed to preserving press freedom, we cannot and will not compromise on this fundamental issue,” said Hoosain.
“If our dedication to the integrity and independence of the press leads to expulsion, so be it. However, before proceeding further, we wish to clarify several essential points.”
According to the company, the PCSA’s handling of the case between News24 and the Sunday Independent was flawed and lacked impartiality.
”We presented a very solid defence against the allegations made by News24, but the PCSA completely disregarded our submissions – demonstrating bias,” he said.
He added that when the company appealed the decision, hoping for fair recourse, the PCSA’s appeal division ignored and discarded its appeal without due consideration.
“The conduct of the PCSA appears devoid of integrity, suggesting a predetermined outcome rather than a fair and unbiased process.”
He said the finding of editorial interference by the company’s shareholder was made without affording the shareholder a right of reply and was based on false, baseless, speculative claims by a rival media company.
“The sanctions imposed on the Sunday Independent are excessively punitive and resemble strategic censorship. They seem designed to punish us in our ongoing battle with media rival News24."
In addition, he said by allowing Media Monitoring Africa (MMA) to smuggle itself in as an amicus, the PCSA had opened the floodgates for advocacy groups to leverage the complaints process as a Trojan horse to exert control over media entities they opposed.
He said News24 and MMA’s requested relief should have been rejected entirely as an opportunistic attempt to conscript the PCSA into a campaign of viewpoint suppression against a disfavoured publisher, Independent Media.
“This, consequently, sets a dangerous precedent that could devastate editorial independence and erode public trust in journalism,” Hoosain warned.
He said the sanctions were disproportionate and content-based restrictions that infringed upon the Sunday Independent’s editorial independence.
Hoosain said that compelling the Sunday Independent to retract the article, issue repeated grovelling apologies, and alter the editorial stance to avoid future controversy constituted an attempt to suppress disfavoured speech and dictate acceptable commentary.
“This is a very true definition of censorship. The PCSA is not a ‘super editor’ empowered to dictate the style and substance of reporting, to a point of ordering a complete deletion of the article without a proof of severe ethical breach,” he added.
Hoosain also questioned the PCSA’s impartiality and the funding sources behind the council.
“We are witnessing a press council, ostensibly the custodians of media freedom, imposing such a draconian sanction against Sunday Independent, while allowing so many other so-called independent media houses to publish opinions which are blatantly defamatory and scathing, yet remain unchallenged."
Hoosain said the group’s editors fully supported Sunday Independent editor Sizwe Dlamini's stance, and many have indicated they, too, would follow suit in withdrawing from the PCSA.
“As a result, we take their views seriously and provide you with advance notice of our intention to withdraw entirely."