COMMENT | Media Council cannot guarantee press freedom

COMMENT | When a politician or a minister puts his or her foot in the mouth and later claims he or she was misquoted or claims words were taken of context, the reader concludes that the reporter or journalist who wrote the original report had erred or did not understand what was said.

His or her integrity and credibility then come under a cloud and the politician, because of his or her status and power, becomes the “victim” of so-called misreporting. Never mind the notations which had been meticulously recorded in the reporter’s notebook or the recording on a device, he or she becomes the villain.

When people in power dictate that what they had uttered had been misinterpreted, the masses swallow them hook, line and sinker, leaving the writer wondering where he or she went wrong. 

Who protects journalists and their profession?...