May 3 marks an important day on the calendar of the media as the international day of press freedom as declared by the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco). Over the years, the world and media across the globe have been celebrating this day, reflecting on the safety of journalists and other factors inhibiting the ability of journalists to perform their duties freely and independently.
As reported by various organisations such as the International Federation of Journalists and Reporters without Borders, more than 50 journalists were killed and 235 imprisoned in the line of duty worldwide last year alone.
This confirms that journalists are still under threat – worrisome for any government subscribing to democratic ideals and the rule of law. A true democratic government is seen in the way it treats the media because the media is the foundation of any democracy. Countries or organisations perpetrating the ill-treatment and/or killing of journalists must be strongly condemned.
There is, however, a new trend that is beginning to rapidly change journalism and threaten media freedom simultaneously – Big Tech companies encroaching on the field of journalism.
Financially, these Big Tech companies are drawing away large advertising revenues from traditional news organisations. Organisationally, they have changed the governance model by ushering in a new era where journalists are able to practice journalism outside the normal news organisation set-up by launching their own, independent digital platforms and newsletters.
The Big Tech companies have the advantage of being free from any regulatory constraints as they are outside any regulatory purview. Socially, they have become contested sites of hate speech and fake news rending ethical standards and traditional accountability measures and safeguards insignificant.
The encroachment of Big Tech companies on journalism emerges amid sustainability challenges faced by many news organisations. In frantic attempts to remain afloat and competitive, some of the traditional news organisations have resorted to commercialisation through subscriptions models, thereby eroding news information as a public good that must be universally accessible. In contrast to Big Tech companies, traditional organisations still have to do these in the onerous regulatory environment characterising their business despite being agents of public good.
For the future of the industry, Big Techs cannot continue to be the outlaws. To deal with the Big Tech question and create space for other news organisations to thrive:
• Special legislation that compels Big Techs to pay for news generated by news organisations must be enacted;
• Existing laws must be amended to compel Big Techs to contribute to the media diversity and development fund (MDDA act);
• To achieve regulatory parity, Big Tech companies carrying and distributing news must be compelled to subscribe to the prescribed domestic journalistic code and other codes or regulations governing the gathering and distribution of news. They must also be held liable for breaches of the code, including hate speech, fake news and unpalatable content as legally prescribed;
• Competition authorities must consider looking into the uncompetitive conduct of Big Tech Companies to level the playing field; and
• The regulators, including self-regulatory institutions, must be capacitated to enforce standards and root out the increasing unethical standards both at institutional and individual levels, particularly brown envelope journalism, hate speech and fake news – critical in this era of Covid-19, where access to information is a matter of life and death.
The inadequacy of self-regulatory mechanisms and strengthening of the regulators have become topical issues, gaining attraction in many jurisdictions. This is important amid the ongoing process to fill the vacancies at SA’s Press Council. The report and recommendations of the Press Freedom Commission, chaired by the late chief justice Pius Langa, cannot just gather dust.
The threat to media freedom is becoming a complex phenomenon. No amount of law can curb partisan journalism, media politicisation and cult journalism, but ethical grounding, conscience and training can. Neither can an individual news organisation deal with it on its own. It requires a collective response and acts of solidarity. News organisations are not political organisations but they need to inculcate a strong value system that can help them repel the growing threats.
• Dr Mashilo works at the department of communications & digital technologies. This article is written in his personal capacity.
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