The South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) says it is ‘deeply concerned by the increasing trend of death threats and social media harassment of journalists by right-wing groups and their supporters’.
SANEF Executive Director Kate Skinner said in a statement that such reactions were ‘a bid to silence [journalists] or stop them from investigating their activities’.
‘SANEF wishes to caution against threats of any nature and crimes against the media that continue with impunity.
‘These fuel and perpetuate a cycle of violence. Consequently, the self-censorship deprives society of information and further affects press freedom. It also directly impacts the United Nations human rights-based efforts to promote peace, security, and sustainable development.’
Skinner noted that The Citizen’s online news editor Daniel Friedman ‘was forced to abandon social media platforms including Twitter, due to a barrage of threats on his life and a relentless campaign meant to paint him as an unfair and biased journalist’.
‘Mr Friedman says he has been targeted and falsely accused by specific individuals of releasing a video in 2015 making fun of the torture and murder of farmers, which was debunked by his employer The Citizen in an article that acknowledged that the said video was manufactured. The campaign against Mr Friedman escalated and Mr Friedman received hundreds of abusive messages, including death threats and anti-semitic hate speech.’
Other social media claims against Friedman included that ‘he allegedly called for the death of right-wing South Africans, which he denies as a “wilful misinterpretation” of an edited version of a joke he made at an Ahmed Kathrada Foundation event. Mr Friedman, who is also a professional comedian, describes as “baseless and untrue” a claim that he called all Afrikaans people “racist scum”.
Skinner said SANEF had noted that The Citizen ‘has suspended Mr Friedman to investigate whether he breached its social media policy. SANEF will await the outcome of the process.’
She added: ‘SANEF wishes to remind all political formations and interest groups to use the services of the Press Ombud’s office, the Press Council and or the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) when aggrieved or unfairly treated by the media. It is better to have an incorrect report properly investigated and sanctions imposed than resorting to mob justice through social media and creating a toxic atmosphere of conspiracy-mongering and hate-mongering towards the journalists and media in general.’
[Picture: Lingo Rodriguez, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=29572747]