8 February 2008: The Challenge of Crime Reporting in the Media

The South African public has, over the past decade, become accustomed to being exposed to extensive media coverage of events related to crime. Any simple content analysis of the media – particularly the print and electronic formats – is bound to find that the media is consistent in its crime reportage on a daily basis.

Whether one is listening to a community radio station or reading the high-end Business Day it is clear that the media is in some ways fulfilling its role of being a public source of information on crime. In this regard the media can be seen as playing a key role in public safety, by keeping citizens informed on trends in violence and victimisation.

Besides simply providing information, it is also evident, through newspaper editorials and op-ed columns, that the media serves as a watchdog which strives to challenge the government to rethink its overall national approach towards crime, law enforcement, the court system and correction services.

However, despite the many positives concerning the media’s role in addressing crime, there is still a lot that needs to be done by the media in terms of its reporting on crime and related issues.

Firstly, the bulk of the reportage on crime is focused on certain crimes at the cost of others. For all their faults, the South African crime statistics – based only on crimes reported to the SAPS – have in the past five years tended to show that crime levels are generally on the decrease, even though they are still high by global standards. On occasion, as in the case of the statistics for the six months from April to September 2007, there have also been slight decreases in crimes such as murder, rape and aggravated robbery, which are often relied upon to frame South Africa as the epitome of violence.

The point here is that there appear to be some discrepancies between the gradual decline in crime and the media’s representation of crime as being on the increase. In fact, because the media tends to focus on urban incidents of violence, this feeds the public perception that the country as an extremely unsafe place. In the process, broader social ills that afflict our society arguably go under-reported.

Secondly, a lot of the coverage borders on being dramatic, event-driven and at times even symptomatic of bad journalism. Whether it is the Lucky Dube murder, the David Rattray murder, the Leigh Mathews kidnapping, ANC leader Jacob Zuma’s court appearances or those of police commissioner Jackie Selebi, it would seem to be the case that reporting on crime and justice issues is often driven by dramatic events, violent crimes, the wealthy and high profile personalities.

To their credit, the media have tended to follow up on these stories with in-depth reporting that attempts to provide contextual information to the actual events. However, it is also fair to say that this reporting is often short on informed explanations. What is even more glaring is the limited extent to which the public is informed about the nitty-gritty of the justice system, from law enforcement to prosecution and corrections. This despite the fact that high-profile court cases have in the past two years been regularly broadcast live on TV.

In addition, perhaps due to the nature of mainstream journalism in itself – deadline pressures, timeliness, scoops etc – crime related stories are often rushed, unbalanced and sometimes based on hearsay or even the journalists’ own personal views. In some cases, euphemisms such as the ‘Sugarcane Murders’ are used to describe victims and offenders without giving us a good sense of who they are. In other cases, gangsters and well-known criminals are glamorised as being ‘intelligent’, ‘beautiful’, ‘a ladies man’ or ‘a giver of charity’ - all at the cost of any descriptive information about the victim/s and the crime committed. On another note, drunk-driving crashes particularly during the holiday season are often simply referred to as ‘accidents’ and yet in all reality they are actually crimes to do with driving under the influence.

While it is not always easy for journalists to balance the ‘public’s right to know’ against the ‘victim’s right to privacy’, it is particularly disturbing to note that in the past five years footage and photographs of body bags, bodies riddled with bullet holes, and images of victims of sexual assault have become commonplace in the coverage of crime and victimisation. They key challenge here is for the media to be more proactive about the protection of the interests, identities and privacy of the victim. To achieve this, the media must work more closely with key justice officials, who are usually keen on case confidentiality, as well as civil society organizations that deal with crime and justice issues.

While most South African newsrooms have their own in-house codes of ethics, it is perhaps the South African National Editors Forum (SANEF), which has in the past tended to highlight some of these concerns, that is best placed agency to deal with them. Beyond that, there is clearly a need for a forum that brings together media practitioners, journalism trainers, civil society, academics/researchers, the public and even Government agencies to review the nexus between media and crime.

Andrew Kanyegirire, Researcher: Crime and Justice Programme, ISS Cape Town