VIP views of the Nelson Mandela Bay stadium and fancy foodstuffs were the order of the day at a media accreditation briefing in Port Elizabeth last month.
It’s not often that scribes get plied with caviar, but then not every media briefing is on behalf of the World Cup.
The occasion was one of several around the country convened by the Local Organising Committee (LOC). The aim was to get journalists to apply early for accreditation to cover the mega-event.
But behind the scenes, the South African National Editors Forum (Sanef) is somewhat edgy about the process getting under way while there are unresolved issues around media rights.
The problem came to light last week at a workshop in Stellenbosch, organised by the German embassy in South Africa.
Draconian conditions
According to veteran editor Raymond Louw who raised the issue, Fifa has yet to revert over long-standing media with the accreditation regime. According to him, the unhappiness is with:
- A condition that binds not just the reporter concerned to worrying Fifa restrictions such as limited shelf-life of stories, but also his or her entire media organisation;
- A warning to journalists of de-accreditation in the event of behaviour deemed to negatively affect the public standing of the LOC or Fifa.
The editors are cognisant of British investigative journalist Andrew Jennings, who exposed corruption in Fifa and has been banned from its press conferences ever since.
There is also concern as regards registering on Fifa’s website media channel, which decrees: ”By accessing, using and continuing to use the Media Channel, you and your organisation explicitly and irrevocably agree to be bound by the T&CS (as may be updated by Fifa from time to time and without further notice) and to fully comply with them.”
It continues: ”All updates shall be legally binding on you and your organisation after being posted on the Media Channel.”
It is such potentially draconian conditions that have led to the formation of the South African ”Media Interest Group” and the international ”News Media Coalition” (NMC).
Advice from the NMC is that before accepting accreditation, journalists should insist on a clause to the effect that: ”… nothing in the present terms and conditions is intended to be, or shall be interpreted as, undermining editorial independence or restricting or preventing the exercise of normal journalistic activities including expressions of comments.”
Fifa is on record in 2006 as stating that it ”has no objection to critical journalism”, with the rider ”provided that the journalists in question respect the principles of fairness, balance and decency”. Whether it will agree to the NMC clause is another issue, however.
Concern over journalists signing away rights
Meanwhile, at the Stellenbosch workshop, German and South African editors expressed deep concern over journalists having to sign away rights in order to get access to Fifa and other sporting events.
The issue is serious, but there’s an even larger part of the iceberg that’s not immediately visible.
To begin with, there’s the cosy and uncritical relationship that evolves as a condition for sports journalists to get close access to the sports story.
More fundamentally, however, is the synergistic business relationship that has evolved between the sports and media industries. Much as there are valid journalistic reasons about editorial freedom to inform the public about sports, much media fuss is also related to its business interest in piggybacking on popular content.
This is why British academic Raymond Boyle assesses sports reporting as becoming ”framed by entertainment rather than journalistic values”, while his Australian counterpart David Rowe has coined the label: the ”Media Sports Cultural Complex”.
Sports promotion rather than journalism
Their criticism is that most sports journalism today ends up doing sports promotion, rather than serious reporting, investigation or analysis.
Critics like them point to a study in 2005 of 10 000 sports articles found that although sports is one of the fastest growing industries worldwide, only 6% of the articles look at the economic aspects. The bulk of coverage is limited to match reports and previews.
But there are sometimes tensions in the media-sports relationship. The Stellenbosch meeting heard that the South African Rugby Union is taking Die Burger to task. The newspaper had run a wrap-around photospread of rugby, which was underwritten by a company that does not sponsor the Rugby Union.
In response, the paper argues that it does the Rugby Union a favour by providing free publicity with photos that include the association’s sponsor banners in the images.
How to keep a distance from these kinds of considerations is one of the biggest challenges for sports journalism. The field seems especially prone to being compromised by commerce or embeddedness with sources, as well as even formal or informal corruption.
Supping with the devil
British sports journalist Steven Downes has asked the question: ”What sports journalist has never supped with the devil, or at least had a glass of chilled Chablis provided with some food at an event at the sponsor’s expense?”
An ethical code for sports journalists could go some way towards drawing a line that would provide audiences with reports that have independent editorial values and integrity.
A code drawn up by German sports journalists stresses journalistic independence, and takes a strong stand against nationalist, sexist, and racist slander and exclusion in sports. Other issues for which guidelines are needed include the use of anonymous sources, disclosures of sponsored coverage, match betting by staffers, gifts and private payments for ghost writing or media ”consultancies”.
Last year, Fifa introduced Fair Play code for football stakeholders, setting out various ethical principles that the organisation committed to stand for ”regardless of the influences and pressures that may be brought to bear”.
South African sports journalists could profitably follow suit — helping to put relations between media and sports industries on a more equitable, respectful and ethical footing.
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