The media plays a very important role in a democratic society such as ours where competing rights often have to be carefully balanced in the process of informing the public.
To enable the media to carry out its responsibility properly and fairly in this regard, it needs to be seen by the public to be subjected to an effective control mechanism in which ordinary people have confidence. But they would only have such confidence if the South African Press Code – the bedrock or source of media regulation – is accessible and understandable to them so as to enable them to invoke it to hold the media accountable.
The booklet, Decoding the Code – sentence by sentence, is therefore an important publication. It clarifies and simplifies the Press Code, thus rendering it accessible to all and sundry; this is one of the reasons why the Press Council has over time been receiving complaints even from ordinary people. This version is an update of the earlier one.
Like the previous version, it has been written in a language that is easy to understand. It has also taken into account some latest developments and trends, and addresses challenges that cropped up subsequent to the publication of the first version. This booklet is therefore a must-read for everybody, let alone stakeholders in the media.