Daily Sun in the ‘dock' - accused by MMP

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Daily Sun in the ‘dock' - accused by MMP

Fed-up with Daily Sun's continued use of the term ‘aliens', which is said to be discriminatory and the newspaper's type of reporting which is allegedly perpetuating stereotypes and fomenting violence against foreigners, the Media Monitoring Project (MMP), in collaboration with its partner Consortium for Refugees and Migrants in SA (CoRMSA) yesterday, Thursday 29 May 2008, submitted an official complaint with press ombudsman Joe Thloloe and the South African Human Rights Commission.

“The MMP strongly believes that the newspaper's headlines such as ‘Alien Terror' and ‘War on Aliens' is inappropriate and its reporting has had the effect of supporting the recent violence by perpetuating stereotypes of foreign people,” MMP project coordinator Sandra Roberts said.

“Such reporting also threatens the freedom of all media in SA, at a time when media freedom has already suffered various challenges,” Roberts added.

The MMP's complaint is based on:

The continued and unjustifiable usage of negative and discriminatory stereotypes being perpetuated in the Daily Sun's reporting of non-nationals.
The repetitive usage of ‘alien' logo and headlines such as ‘Aliens terror' and ‘War on aliens'.
The biased and limited representation of government and government agencies.
The failure of Daily Sun to clearly condemn the violence and until most of it had been contained.
The failure of Daily Sun to offer any non-violent alternatives, or additional information to help prevent violence and to condone mob justice.

“Because of the abovementioned reasons, we submit that the coverage of non-nationals by Daily Sun during this period is not in line with its responsibility to fair, balanced, accurate and non-discriminatory reporting, contravening several fundamental clauses of the SA Press Code,” Roberts stated.

Furthermore, the MMP's complaint recommends that the newspaper change the trend of its coverage by taking the following actions: apologise to all its readers, offer a front-page apology to all foreigners living in SA, adopt an editorial position that condemns the violence and seeks out stories offering alternatives to resolve tensions and disputes, and, lastly, adopt and publicise an ethical code that involves its readers' participation.

Following the outbreak of xenophobic violence that damaged SA's image abroad, many observers have been quick to point fingers at the SA media for what they call ‘anti-foreigner' and ‘irresponsible' reporting that apparently intoxicated communities to attack foreigners.

The violence has killed close to 60 people, left more than 1000 injured and forced nearly 30 000 people to seek refuge in makeshift refugee camps, amid the threat of hunger, cold weather and various diseases.

More than 15 000 foreigners, including close to 10 000 Mozambicans, have since fled the country.

• Read what Bizcommunity.com readers having been saying about the Daily Sun and other newspapers in comments here.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Issa Sikiti da Silva is a freelance journalist and short stories writer whose work has been published in local and foreign publications, both in English and French. He contributes to Bizcommunity.com as a news writer. Email him at issa@bizcommunity.com.