A research report submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the
degree of the University of Witwatersrand’s Masters by Coursework and
Research Report in Journalism studies, Johannesburg, February 2017 / Journalists are often presented with leaked information from whistleblowers. Having
the information and writing the story, as well as handling a source that may or may
not want to be anonymous, gives rise to ethical dilemmas on the part of the
journalist. This was certainly true for journalists reporting on the political violence in
South Africa during the late 1980s and the early 1990s. Journalists operate under
codes of practice that are set by various media organisations and must ensure that
in using whistleblower information to write their stories, “they must avoid breaches of
ethics, fairness, factual accuracy and contextual accuracy” (Houston, B. et al., 2002:
538). And most importantly, journalists are ethically bound to protect their sources.
This research looks at the interaction between journalists and their sources of
information in two major stories that involved the use of whistleblowers. It discusses
and compares the issue of “source handling”, in the following two South African
stories which used information leaked by whistleblowers:
a. the 1991 “Inkathagate” story, which was broken by the Weekly Mail
newspaper;
b. “Vlakplaas” hit squad story, initially involving the Weekly Mail (20 October
1989) and then Vrye Weekblad (November 1989).
This study also brings into focus the issue of strengthening journalistic ethics in the
South African context. It contends that the “Inkathagate” and “Vlakplaas” stories
were dependent on the verification of the information, as well as the ethical handling
of the whistleblowers. This study raises questions about the motivations of the
whistleblowers, their relationships with the journalists, as well as the critical role of
the public’s “right to know”, or “public interest”. / XL2018
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:netd.ac.za/oai:union.ndltd.org:wits/oai:wiredspace.wits.ac.za:10539/24582 |
| Date | January 2017 |
| Creators | Raghunath, Mahendra |
| Source Sets | South African National ETD Portal |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis |
| Format | Online resource (92 leaves), application/pdf, application/pdf |
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