South African editors to change coverage of xenophobia

By Tererai Karimakwenda

30 January 2006

A xenophobia conference for news editors in Southern Africa was held in Johannesburg on Monday and the outcome was encouraging. Zimbabwean activist Daniel Molokela, who is also with the South Africa Editors Forum, was one of the panellists at the conference and he told us there was a consensus that the press had played a major role in the negative perception of foreigners in South Africa. As a result the editors agreed to try and change their editorial policy and be more positive in their coverage of issues relating to foreigners. Zimbabweans in particular have complained that they are abused by the police and by the local residents in South Africa because the press blames them for housing shortages and for stealing jobs.

Present at the meeting were representatives of various organisations dealing with the press and human rights. Among them were the South Africa Human Rights Commission, the Media Monitoring Project South Africa, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees and editors from prominent papers like the The Sowetan and The Sunday Times. Molokela said they were all positive and quite receptive to taking a proactive stance against xenophobia and to present a more positive image of foreigners in their publications. Language was identified as a key factor in covering these issues. Molokela was optimistic the discussions would produce results. He said they would meet again for an update and review any progress made through their efforts.