Can we believe what we read in the newspapers? Journalists on newspapers (and also radio and television) have a responsibility to put before the public information that is accurate and based on truth. Journalists ask their readers to accept their integrity when writing their news reports.
This trust between journalist and reader breaks down when it is discovered that journalists have failed to produce accurate reports of the events they cover.
There are many examples of this breakdown in the Swazi media, but recently there was a particularly revealing example. The Times Sunday ran a story (and ‘story’ is the right word here as the news report turned out to be complete fiction) concerning an official government report that stated that 20,000 people died while being treated as patients at Mbabane Government Hospital in 2006. It also gave other statistics regarding the number of patients treated in various hospital departments.
The Ministry of Health quickly denied the report published in the Times Sunday of 15 July 2007.
Two weeks later on 29 July 2007 the Times Sunday editor Mbongeni Mbingo was forced to make an abject apology ‘for our own ineptitude’. He then gave a curious account of what had happened. Unintentionally, I think, he revealed the lack of journalistic skills that many journalists in Swaziland possess.
His explanation goes like this. A Times Sunday reporter received a phone call from someone claiming to be working in the minister’s office of the Ministry of Health. The caller said she wanted to expose the true picture of what was going on at the Mbabane Government Hospital ‘for the sake of the people who are suffering and those who continue to.’
The caller went on to tell the reporter that the minister was ‘clueless’. She claimed she would give the reporter an exclusive on a report on the government hospital. The caller made several calls during the following days and revealed the figures that later were published in the newspaper.
Then, just before midnight on the Saturday before the newspaper was on the streets, the caller rang back to say that she had deliberately tricked the reporter and given false information. The caller said she had done this in retaliation for critical news reports that newspapers had been publishing about the health ministry.
In his apology, the editor goes on to claim that the ministry and the minister of health personally have a vendetta against him and his newspaper.
As I write this I have no way of knowing whether there is any truth in the editor’s version of events. How much can we trust his newspaper to tell us the truth?
What I can say is that the reporter and her superiors at the newspaper should have made some effort to get confirmation on the report. The editor himself acknowledges this in his apology.
This incident is embarrassing in itself because it shows the incompetence at the newspaper. The embarrassment is even greater because in the same edition (indeed on the very same page) that the original news report about the hospital appeared there was a lengthy apology regarding a report previously published about a school pupil who had committed suicide after discovering her HIV status.
The apology acknowledged many errors: that the girl’s death was not related to her HIV status; the reporter misidentified the man who spoke at her memorial service; that her mother was called from work on the say the daughter died (the mother was actually not at work that day); and the girl had not bought the weevil tablets she used to kill herself some days previously. It is hard to see from this apology which facts in the report the reporter actually got right.
It is a coincidence that the two examples I use here are from the same newspaper. I doubt very much that the Times Sunday is worse than any of the other news media in Swaziland. As readers it is difficult for us to know when a story contains inaccuracies. Unless we have some personal knowledge of the events being reported we can’t know whether the reporter has got the facts right. Personally, I have seen a number of reports in all the papers where I know that facts are either wrong or are being misrepresented. It is easier to detect inaccuracies on some days when, for example, both the Swazi Observer and Times of Swaziland cover the same event but in their published reports are unable to agree on quite simple matters such as the names, ages, occupations etc. of people involved in the report.
Article one of the Swaziland National Association of Journalists (SNAJ) Code of Ethics states that the duty of every journalist is to write and report, adhere to and faithfully defend the truth. It goes on to state that a journalist should make adequate inquiries, do cross checking of facts in order to provide the public with unbiased, accurate, balanced and comprehensive information.
Getting things right is important because readers must feel that they can trust their newspapers (or other news media). The main way they do this by having confidence that the reports and articles in the newspapers are accurate. Large numbers of people read and trust newspapers. The SNAJ Code of Ethics recognises that journalists have a duty not to mislead the public.
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), which has a worldwide reputation for the accuracy of its journalism, tells its reporters, ‘Our output must be well sourced, based on sound evidence, thoroughly tested and presented in clear, precise language. We should be honest and open about what we don't know and avoid unfounded speculation.’
There have been many academic studies into the relationship between media accuracy and credibility. Put simply, the more errors there are in an article, the less credible is the news story. Errors not only diminished respect for the newspaper but also tarnish the media’s working relationships with the sources relied upon for information. If sources of news cannot trust the newspaper to get it right, they are unlikely to willingly work with that newspaper in the future.
Editors of newspapers should make sure that reporters check their facts and do not make mistakes. One newspaper, the Sunday Times in Johannesburg, has a checklist that reporters and editors are asked to complete for each report. The checklist covers a number of areas, including basic information such as the names and ages etc., of people included in the report. It also includes questions about fairness, such as whether all people parties involved in the story have been contacted.
The checklist can be seen here
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