Special Hearings — Media Hearings — UNKNOWN

RORY WILSON: Thank you.  Mr Chairman, at the time the Patton report was submitted to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission it was published as a public document and at that time, as you probably are aware, three, many of the past executives of our company, The Argus Company, objected to that report and the issuing of it.  In fact, three former editors described the report as inappropriate and they described our actions as being inappropriate in saying, in that we apologised in that report.  I quote,		"... for our actions for which we were not responsible ...",Instead these three editors have pointed to the role of the former Argus Company as, quote again,		"... a constant critic of the Nationalist Government, opposing its policies and exposing injustices, cruelties and wrongdoing ..."The new Independent acknowledges the courageous stance taken by many editors, by many journalists, by many members of staff in, on many different occasions and in, and very different circumstances on different issues.  We do not seek to minimise these many good things that these Argus people did over the years.  However, we believe that the mood of the country, at this point in its history and the interventions of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, are now rightly focused on the injustices and the abuses of the past and, indeed, what remedial steps have been or should be taken and that will be the major focus of our presentation.	Before dealing with the main points of the Patton report, we also need to point out that there a number of retired people, particularly management people, who were not consulted by Patton and who might be willing to testify about the activities of The Argus Company during the apartheid years.  We did not feel it was our duty to, we did not think it was appropriate either, for the current leadership of Independent to invite such people to come before this hearing.  	In any event, the understanding of the current Independent leadership is that The Argus Company, during the apartheid era, was a rather staid, cautious and slow moving newspaper company which, according to its mission statement, placed South Africa's advancement and wellbeing before else, all else and pursued a balanced policy calculated to enhance the welfare and progress of all sections of the population.  Rather like the Times Media situation, in fact, identically to it, the editors in our newspapers are not told what to write and they never have been in the, The Argus Company.  They were free to produce the newspapers that they felt were appropriate for those times and in those circumstances.  While they did that, the editors kept an eye on, at least, the managers kept an eye on the bottom line of the company. 	As we have heard from other evidence before this hearing, the, The Argus Company operated within a hostile legal and political context.  Journalists were constantly harassed, threatened, abused and intimidated for doing their duties they, as they saw it.  They tried, simultaneously, to serve the interests of a, largely, white readership and, at the same time, a repressed, restless black majority.  A very difficult job under any circumstances.  I think it is true that the editors, particularly, in the, The Argus Company and other executives sought constantly to find loopholes and often tested the limits of the Law through different States of Emergency.  	The constant propaganda barrage of the State against the communist onslaught created a climate of hostility and antagonism towards the newspapers of The Argus Company as opponents of the Nationalist Government.  Apartheid, security and media Laws and regulations proscribed and restricted free news coverage of newsworthy, but political, politically sensitive subjects.  This interfered with the normal functioning of a newspaper as a watchdog of the people.  Particularly, Laws, prevented black reporters from practising freely in large areas of public life.  In this respect, both the company and black journalists were victims of Government generated human rights abuses.  Political developments polarised emotions in society making it extremely difficult for journalists to be strictly and effectively objective.  	While sketching you this rather harsh environment in which journalists had to operate, the Patton report highlights a number of shortcomings.  It is clear that the old Argus Company was strongly driven by commercial motives and that this often blunted the cutting edge of its newspapers in exposing the wrongs of apartheid and human rights violations.  While apartheid Laws made free access to a full range of news sources more difficult, it is our belief, and it is, certainly, one of Patton's conclusions, that our company made insufficient effort, particularly in the earlier years of the period under review, to overcome these obstacles.  	As we heard this morning from Mr Mazwai and others, our newspaper staffs were, generally, too white and in the critical editorial area, black staff began to be introduced on any serious scale only during the 1970's.  It is also our view that our companies newspapers made insufficient attempts to generate news from disadvantaged communities and we accept the charge that was made this morning that this created a distorted view of South African society as a whole.  Our newspapers often failed to provide a proper balance in their coverage of political events and the staffing imbalances, certainly, aggravated that.  Black editorial staff members were employed, as I say, only on a significant scale from the 70's and promotion of black journalists into executive positions took place only in the latter part of the period under review.  	When editors, eventually, put their minds to avoiding and evading the restrictions embodied in Laws and regulations, many loopholes were found enabling the press to do a better job, but I think it is true to say that these efforts, really, only started being made with any seriousness in the 80's and probably only in the second half of the 80's.  Argus Company newspapers, while steadfastly opposing apartheid at all times, pursued gradualist goals within white politics for many years before opting for constitutional settlement through negotiation with all representative groups.  	Finally, I think we need to acknowledge that the emergence of the alternative press in the 80's certainly showed up our company as having to, some extent, lost touch with the oppressed masses.  So, I think the summary of our position, Mr Chairman, is that working conditions, the dynamics of the society as a whole, made newspapering a very difficult exercise, but we believe that we should have done far more to overcome these antagonistic conditions. 	The new leadership of the company has devoted a great deal of time and effort in looking at ways to ensure that the imbalances of the past, that we have just described, are a thing of the past and that they do not persist into the new Independent Newspapers.  A great deal is being done at all levels in terms of training, specifically, education, upgrading of staff.  Last year we ran a very successful fast tracking programme for senior editorial executives in conjunction with the Nieman Foundation.  We have, this year, run a very successful executive development programme, taking senior managers in all departments and giving them crash courses in management.  A, sort of, accelerated training programme.  	Last year we negotiated a very comprehensive affirmative action policy with all our trade unions and that commits us, as a group, to enormous amount of progress in this connection between last year and the end of 99.  I am happy to say that we are already making significant improvements there, both in the appointment of black staff and, of course, of women staff into executive positions.  A new group Training Director has been appointed with the task of co-ordinating the companies diverse editorial training initiatives and is developing new ones.  It is the first time in Argus' long history that we have much such an appointment, now by Independent, and it is an indication of the seriousness with which we approach training and transformation.	Talking as a Managing Director of one of the three regions of our company, I can say to you that one of our major focuses on virtual daily basis, is the transformation exercise which is far more than just creating the right numbers and the right people in the right places, but we spend a great deal of time on attitude transformation.  The transformation of peoples' attitudes.  Similar initiatives are going on at the Independent Newspaper School of Journalism and I have to say that many of the people who have given evidence before this Commission, in fact, were graduates of that school.  	We have been working, this year, in conjunction with the Knight Foundation of the United States in developing a series of special courses aimed at the training of, particularly, of sub-editors which is a major gap, we think, in the South African journalism scene and is essential to the transformation of our newspapers.  We have, also, reorganised our services at Parliament and, again, another key aspect of that is the transformation of that service coming out of Parliament.  	Mr Chairman, I think, finally, we should say that Independent Newspapers is the only group, newspaper group, at this time, which has launched new newspapers in the last two to three years.  We are creating jobs and, for journalists, particularly, and we are investing in newspapers, we are investing in journalism.  	In summary, then, our position, I think, is that we think some good things have been done in the last few years, but we need to say, categorically, that, while we think we are on the right track, the directors and the senior executives of our company acknowledge that we still have a long way to go in improving the internal climate of the company and making it a more nurturing, developing and supportive environment.  We believe that this is the way to respond to the past and, indeed, in a sense, it is the only way can respond.  We regard our company as one of the great institutions of South Africa and we see that, we think we have a very important role to play in the future and we intend to play that in the guise of a very new company, not an old Argus Company, but a new independent company.  We want to be major contributors to all elements of the so-called new South Africa.  	Mr Chairman, my colleagues are ready, willing and available to answer any questions.