(Un) Protecting A Public Person’s Privacy

"Although I am a public figure, I'm still a little shy. I don't think my own personality is important. I prefer to keep some small dosage of privacy."- Joshua Lederberg

I

 think the statement above holds true for most of us – whether we are in the public eye or not. At the end of each day, we all want to shut out the rest of the world and be ourselves in the comfort of our homes, among our friends and families.

It then becomes problematic when this small dosage of privacy is infringed upon and that which had been kept hidden from the rest of the world, suddenly comes out in the open for all to view, read and hear about. We have seen it all too often in South Africa and the rest of the world, where people in high-profile positions, have had their personal lives probed and their supposed-skeletons hung in the open by the media – with most of them left with pie on their faces, a-la-Rupert Murdoch!

It is even worse when such skeletons turn out be lies by those wanting to cause harm on certain individuals’ characters. Examples that come to mind are: the story of Deputy-President Kgalema Motlanthe and his alleged young pregnant girlfriend – which turned out to be lies perpetrated by the young woman. Another example is that of Bulelani Ngcuka’s issue that he was an apartheid spy – which also later turned out to be a pack of lies! There are many others to mention…

My question is, when journalists come with such allegations – and before the story can be published - are they asked to verify, check, confirm and check again with their sources? How ‘deep’ do they go in search of the facts? Judging by the retractions that we see daily in the media, it would seem neither the journalists nor the news editors, are doing a thorough job of it. My feeling is that, on articles that touch the lives of individuals directly, an effort should be made to at least, get the true facts first, before the story can see the light of day…

It is a different case altogether however, when such public personalities use their privileged positions to plunder public funds meant for the benefit of under-resourced communities. The media – especially community media - should play a role of exposing such behaviour and hold these high-profile officials to account for their actions.

Ultimately, the media has a dual role to play in our society: that of being gate-keeper and guardian, while at the same time having enough ubuntu to carry well-researched, thought-through information that is relevant and beneficial to society.

The question is, is that possible today in a world where profits surpass all else?

I wonder…!