Monday, January 27, 2014

Journalists cautioned against political party affiliation



Journalists cautioned against political party affiliation

Sunday 26 January 2014 
SABC
Journalists – whether newspaper, tv or radio - have been advised against belonging to a political party.(SABC)
Lawyers for Independent Newspapers senior journalist Donwald Pressly says if an audit were to be conducted; most journalists would be found to be members of political parties.

Their statement comes after the newspapers' management suspended Pressly for allegedly applying to be on the DA's list of parliamentary candidates for the 2014 general election.

The newspaper's management says Pressly did this without informing his editor.

It says he also continued to write news, opinions and analysis on the DA without declaring his political intentions to the readers.

One of Pressly's lawyers Michael Bagraim says: “I challenge all the journalists in this country - whether they’re radio journalists or newspaper journalists or tv - that they don’t belong to political parties. Most probably if you do an audit and look at all the lists you’d probably find hundreds of journalists within the same group.”

Democratic Alliance leader Helen Zille also expressed this notion on Saturday while speaking during at the announcement of her party's prospective parliamentary and premier candidates.

Zille believes that most journalists are affiliated to political parties, evident in their writing.

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