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President Jacob Zuma

CAPE TOWN — The role of media owners and their responsibility is to ensure that their products reflect a balanced view of the country and not only negative news, the South African  Presidency said on Thursday.   The business side of the media should not negatively impact on the telling of the South African story, especially as the country heads towards 20 years of freedom, presidential spokesman Mac Maharaj said.

He was speaking amid a debate on the role of media in nation building. The debate ensued after President Jacob Zuma on Tuesday hit out at the South African media for always reporting the negative while neglecting the positive.

In an interaction with journalism students in Parliament, Zuma accused the media of concentrating on “opposite of the positive.”
Zuma said powerful media owners and their commercial interests dictate how stories get told in South Africa.

His remarks drew strong reaction from the media which defended their right of free expression.
“The President’s view is that the profit motive influences content as media products need to sell in order to make money,” Maharaj said.

He said the president told the students to be open-minded about the role of the media and the pressure it was under, especially with regards to balancing the role of media products as business enterprises need to make a profit.
Maharaj echoed Zuma’s view that the media concentrated too much on negative news. For example, he said, the South African media last week chose to highlight that South Africa ranked 53rd in the World Economic Forum competitiveness index, however it failed to focus on the fact that the country took first place on the regulation of securities exchanges and second place on the availability of financial services.

Further, the country ranked second out of the 148 nations for the availability of financing through local equity markets, and there was no prominent recognition of these accomplishments from the media coverage, Maharaj said.
He said the president appreciates the contribution of some media houses to nation building. – Xinhua.