Finding Complaint 4335
Date of Article: 17/3/2019
Headline: “Secretary-General Ace Magashule says: We don’t need white votes”
Page: 1
Online: Yes
Author: Ngwako Modjadji
Particulars
This ruling is based on a complaint filed on behalf of the African National Congress by Mr Krish Naidoo, the party’s legal advisor. It is based on the written complaint from Mr Naidoo, as well as a response from City Press, as well as further emailed questions from the Ombudsman for clarity.
Complaint
Mr Krish Naidoo, the ANC’s legal advisor, complains that an article published by City Press, under the headline, “Secretary-General Ace Magashule says: We don’t need white votes”, transgressed the Press Code in two respects:
10.1 Headlines and captions to pictures shall give a reasonable reflection of the contents of the report or picture in question.
1.16 It ends with a warning by Magashule that the votes of young people will be “key” and that the “EFF is working hard on the ground.”
The ANC
2.1 The ANC, through Mr Krish Naidoo, says the article is based on an interview “that ran for 6 minutes and 20 seconds” with Mr Magashule. The interviewer was Mr Ngwako Modjadji of City Press.
2.2. Most of the interview dealt with the candidates list which the ANC had recently submitted to the IEC. Mr Magashule explained the vetting process and “elaborated on representivity” which included youth, women, people with disabilities and representatives of “national groups.”
2.3 The interview in the main “vacillated along the interplay between morality and legality”. The journalist put it to Mr Magashule that those who were tarnished by perceptions of corruption should step aside; Mr Magashule responded that until they had been convicted in a court of law, there was no reason to exclude them. The ANC, writes Mr Naidoo, “welcomes” this discussion about the moral/legal dichotomy “as a sign of a maturing democracy” and considers it to be “in the public interest”.
City Press
2.5 Partly because of the pressures of covering the election, City Press was fairly late to respond to this complaint; its response came about six weeks after the complaint was lodged. However, Mr Dumisane Lubisi, the paper’s deputy editor, apologised for this.
2.6 In its argument, City Press contends that it “reasonably summarised” everything Mr Magashule said. It cites his statement that the ANC relies on support from the black constituency “and was banking on bolstering its electoral showing with whites (sic) votes.”
2.7 City Press, in its defence, quotes the following from Magashule: “There are whites who believe in democracy and nonracialism. They have been there for many years. But to think that whites, generally, will vote for the ANC this time around, for me, does not make sense…Our hope is not based on colour, and therefore people cannot say that whites this time are going to vote ANC – as if blacks are not actually going to vote ANC…”
2.8 Mr Magashule also stated that whites did not vote for the ANC even in the time of Mandela – who was popular among all race groups – “implying there was no necessity to chase the white vote now.” (My emphasis)
2.9 City Press also argues he “disagreed” with statements by the Gauteng ANC that more whites would vote for the ANC in the coming elections.
2.10 He said there were white people who had voted for the ANC over the years but “it is black people who have voted for the ANC and nothing about this fact was going to change in these elections.” He also said, according to City Press, “people cannot say that whites are going to vote for the ANC, as if black people are not going to vote.”
2.11 The paper argues it is important to “make the distinction’ that it did not write that Mr Magashule said the ANC did not want votes from white people, as that would have implied they were not welcome. He was reported as saying that with or without white votes the ANC would still “perform strongly in the elections.” Thus the headline captures his sentiment that the party does not need white votes.
It did not need “an extra helping hand” from white voters”
The week before the Sunday Times had carried a front page story that said the Gauteng ANC believed whites would vote for the party “because of the appeal of President Cyril Ramaphosa.”
“So the headline captures succinctly the message he was conveying through those quotes, the accuracy of which he does not dispute.”
2.12 There was a debate in the media fraternity about whether journalists were “mere stenographers” or whether they should play a “bigger role in interpreting what the subjects of their stories are saying. This is particularly germane in the writing of headlines.”
“A headline does not have to reproduce every word from the story. It merely has to encapsulate in a few words what a lengthy story is portraying. City Press believes this is the case here”.
2.13 City Press took great care in reporting the story and believes the headline “captured” the essence of the article. “No reasonable reader would have been misled by the headline after reading the body of the story. It was clear that Mr Magashule was saying the ANC’s win in the elections was not depended on whites and that the party had always won based on the majority of black voters.” (My emphasis)
The paper also points to Mr Magashule’s quote about Mandela being popular among all races and that “even then, the ANC was voted for by the black majority”.
2.14 “The headline was the true interpretation of the message that Mr Magashule wanted to be read by readers,” argues the paper.
3.1 The article itself was comprehensive, informative, and with analysis that was well substantiated.
3.3 Contrary to City Press’s argument that he disagreed with research conducted in an internal poll by the Gauteng ANC, there is no indication of this in the article. Instead, the next paragraph says: “However, Magashule insisted there were “no iconic figures” left in the ANC, adding that current ANC leaders love “money and positions.”
3.5 An important focus of the story was on the composition of the election lists and the number of people on them who had been implicated in state capture. Mr Magashule responds to this by saying that none of them have been convicted in a court of law.
3.6 It adds some analysis (based on reporting) that indicates that the lists were a kind of compromise to prevent “the Zuma camp going on a warpath…” It also speaks about the balance of those on the list from various provinces, age groups etc. It ends with Mr Magashule emphasizing the importance of young voters and a suggestion that the ANC was looking to combat possible EFF popularity among the young. (“Whether we like it or not, the EFF is working hard and is on the ground.”)
3.7 Nowhere – even when talking about the racial breakdown of votes – does it quote Mr Magashule as saying the party does not “need” white votes. The use of the word “says” in the print-version of the headline (and a colon in the online version) after Mr Magashule’s name and before the statement “We don’t need white votes” unambiguously suggests that he himself has said this. It is not an argument to say he was “implying” this, without putting the proposition to him directly.There is no indication in the article itself that he discussed the racial breakdown of votes in this way: instead he said there had always been a small group of whites who had voted for the ANC and the party did not expect this to change. The argument that the headline could have been read to infer that “white votes”, because whites are in a minority, will not be of great significance to the party’s election outcomes, does not hold much water. The way the sentence is constructed comes across as contemptuous of white support, and there is no indication in the article that this is what Mr Magashule meant.
3.8 It is quite true that any reader who read the whole article, may have concluded that “Mr Magashule was saying the ANC’s win in the elections was not dependent on whites and that the party had always won based on the majority of black voter”, as City Press argues. But a headline is critical because it sets the tone of debate, particularly in this age of “clickbait” on the internet.
Finding
I find that City Press has transgressed Section 10.1 of the Press Code, which states that “Headlines and captions…shall give a reasonable reflection of the contents of the report..”
City Press is to apologise to the ANC and to Mr Magashule himself for the misleading headline. The apology should be carried prominently on page 1 (where the original story was published)
This is a Tier 2 offence. The newspaper’s correction and apology should be published on the same page as the original print story and be approved by the Ombudsman. The Press Council logo and a link to this finding should also be published.
Appeal
The Complaints Procedures lay down that within seven working days of receipt of this decision, either party may apply for leave to appeal to the Chairperson of the SA Press Appeals Panel, Judge Bernard Ngoepe, fully setting out the grounds of appeal. He can be contacted at Khanyim@ombudsman.org.za.
Pippa Green
Press Ombudsman
October 30, 2019