Political Coverage The Team: Kishendrie Chetty Taryn Hodgson Loyiso Kato Deshanta Naidoo Qurasha Rajkumar Sello Ramodibe

Grocott’s Mail Policy on Political Coverage Political Coverage: - Allocation of resources - Democracy being the legal contestation of the right to control the allocation of the above- mentioned resources - Political coverage will be confrontational in nature - [as] It involves various debates concerning the allocation of resources

Aims - Analyse political coverage in Grocott’s Mail - Relationship with GM - Conduct interviews with various Non-governmental Organisations (NGO’s), political parties, Makana Municipality and Grocott’s Mail - To make recommendations for future editorial policy

Research Methodology - Qualitative research methods: - , Interviews, follow-up - Preliminary interview: - To gather Information - In-depth interviews: - More focused questions

Grocott’s Mail - No Formal policy currently - Sources content from East Cape News (Pty) Ltd. - Acts as mirror of community

Makana Municipality Current relationship with GM - Relationship is not good or bad - Approach sometimes very rude “We are not working for the media but we are a public institution” Suggestions for Policy - Use Community forums - Integrate existing township supplement into newspaper

Political Parties African National Congress - Grocott’s biased in their reporting - Establish a working relationship with Grocott’s Democratic Alliance Party - Fair in their political coverage - Maintain sound working relationship with the newspaper

Political Parties contd… African Christian Democratic Party - Pleased with coverage - On Municipal matters, responses should be as part of Council as opposed to members of political parties Communist Party and AZAPO

Suggestions from political parties Parties should be made aware of the channels by which to communicate No ‘cut and paste’ of press releases

NGO’s Sources: - Public Service Accountability Monitor (PSAM) - Centre for Social Development (CSD) - Rotary Club of Grahamstown - The Raphael Centre

PSAM  No problems with Grocott’s Mail  Inadequate township representation  Train journalists to work in correlation with people from the township

CSD No Problems with GM coverage Liaison person between GM and NGO - E.g. A journalist who will work in conjunction with township people

Rotary - Adequate coverage - Community Awareness through current coverage - Press releases submitted regularly

The Raphael Centre - Fair coverage - Press releases submitted - Suggested a Media Liaison Person

Policy Recommendations Before policy conceptualisation one should consider how Grocott’s aims to place itself within the community - Normal journalistic conventions to be adhered to (impartiality, fairness, accuracy) - Grocott’s must create own communication with institutions

Suggested Policy - Grocott’s should not take a political stance and refrain from party affiliations - Fulfill role as watchdog as well as participatory role in democratic democracy - Aim to create a platform for equal representation and allow diversity of voices to filter through paper

Monitoring and Implementation In-house monitoring like that of Sunday Times (questionnaire) Review of policy by Board every Five years - Focus groups to be held every three years to review the political coverage like that of SABC’s draft editorial policy Formalised orientation programme for all new staff (a refresher course for existing staff after a certain period)