Joel Netshitenzhe
Article: Letter from Tshwane
31 March 2000
Can there be an agenda within a news agenda
Can there be a sinister agenda within a news agenda?
This question continually
engages the mind of media analysts and public figures. Often,
such suspicions are unfounded. Failure to do thorough research,
dependence on unnamed sources and sheer banality on the part
of some journalists can sully an honourable profession. On
the other hand, the objects of media scrutiny have to resist
the temptation to blame conspiracies for actual weaknesses.
Our thoughts on
this matter here in Tshwane were kindled by a Scottish Sunday
newspaper report on a forthcoming book whose author claims
that former President Nelson Mandela is an agent of the British
intelligence arm MI6.
Perhaps, for a start,
congratulations are in order for the commendable disdain with
which South African media have so far treated this story –
as in fiction.
But then, the thought
of a sinister agenda persists. You see, this type of story
from these shores is not really the first of its kind.
In 1997 Mandela’s visits to Libya and his reception there, brought a real sense of hope that a solution to Lockerbie was possible.
Not long after he started this engagement, there appeared, in a British paper,
a fabrication citing unnamed sources, that the visits were a cover for an oil-for-arms deal.
In 1998, while visiting
Eastern Europe, Mandela expressed the outrage of most of the
world at both the ethnic-based repression by authorities in
Kosovo and the destruction inflicted by NATO in its unmandated
and at times careless bombing campaign.
It was not long
before stories appeared in foreign media that Mandela and
the South African government were helping some of Milosevic’s
family seek refuge in South Africa and that some of them had
transferred their funds to this country.
After his retirement,
Mandela’s intervention in the Middle East process again
brought some hope where there had been despair.
Strange enough,
it was not long before a story wound its way through Europe
and into our pages that a house he had bought for his retirement
in Cape Town had been paid for by the Libyan head of state.
And now this book…
Though it is a matter
for another occasion, we do have our homegrown strangely-timed
stories. Remember the electronic monitoring gadgets in a certain
party’s office that were never really there, and how
this coincided with some unpleasant diplomatic incident? Hopefully,
this has to do only with our debating style and old habits
from a dispensation that we will outgrow.
To return to our
former President: Only it is not just Madiba the person as
he constantly insists. His office noted last week that the
story that MI6 used him to pursue British interests in South
Africa and Libya is credible only to those who have difficulty
in accepting that individuals other than those from the "first
world" can play an important part in world affairs. In
his own words, "they show a contempt for Africa".
What then is the
point of all this for us?
Often, in the past,
the more bizarre of such stories originated from abroad; and
they were then recycled by credulous local media. From this
recent example, it is clear that "contempt for Africa"
is increasingly losing its hold and we doubt that stories
such as these will make much headway.
Even more critical
is the question of South Africa’s position in international
affairs. This derives from the uniqueness of our political
transition, the universal nature of our struggle against racism,
the potent mix of our geo-political and economic situation,
and the stature of much of our leadership in both the public
and private sectors.
South Africa is
thus able to articulate views of developing countries with
the necessary respect – but not reverence and awe –
for the powerful. It is able to launch major initiatives on
all kinds of critical world issues. Our diplomats characterise
this as boxing above our weight. And this may result in stepping
on the toes and bruising the knees of right-wing colossi firmly
rooted in the past, some of whom are in fact working against
the policies of their own governments.
This is unavoidable,
especially if our leadership demonstrates independence of
mind. There is the current heated debate on HIV/AIDS and retroviral
treatments – and the hornets have yet to leave the stirred
nest en masse.
The hope is that
the gross absurdity of the latest fulmination will help us
to be just that little more critical and demanding when strange
rumours hit our shores.
Of course it can
be unhelpful and debilitating to make a habit of keeping antennae
on guard against such occurrences. But it’s an abiding
lesson of serious politics and economics that the wise do
not rule out, as a matter of principle, the question:
Can there be a sinister agenda within the news agenda?
Joel Netshitenzhe
CEO, Government Communications (GCIS)
Published in Independent Newspapers
top |
