News24 rebuked for McKenzie 'gravy train' headline
The headline last year titled ‘Send me! McKenzie’s gravy train to Paris Olympics cost taxpayers R800 000,’ published by News24 a few months after Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie’s trip to the games, was misleading and in breach of the Press Code, the Deputy Press Ombud found, says GroundUp.
When the two parts of the headline are read together, he explained ‘they suggest that the complainant asked or wanted to go to the Olympics in order to obtain a financial benefit for himself.’
Also of concern to McKenzie was the comparison between the amount previously spent on ‘superfans,’ a practice he stopped, with the amount spent to send him and the departmental officials.
On the second complaint regarding the superfans, the Deputy Ombud took the Minister’s point that the cost of his trip couldn’t neatly be compared to the costs previously incurred to send superfans to other events.
McKenzie previously told Parliament that the R804 590 included flights at R215 976 and ‘ground transportation’ at R454 005. With the R1-million spent to also send seven departmental officials, the costs totalled R1.8m.
But the Deputy Ombud said the reporting on this issue was ‘to gauge whether the Minister was indeed living up to his promise to review his department’s expenditure in favour of athletes and artists.’
And given his concession on the high costs incurred, with it being “in the public interest to know how public money is being spent”, the Deputy Ombud held that the article had not breached the code.
But McKenzie’s third complaint was upheld when the Deputy Ombud agreed the article’s reference to R1.8m having been spent on the Minister ‘and his support team’ to be a misrepresentation of fact. Only one person was support staff and News24 was directed to mention that the Ministerial Handbook was not violated in respect of the size of the support team.
As a result of News24’s failure to mention the athletes’ free accommodation at the Olympic Village, which he found to be material, the Deputy Ombud held that the flawed comparison was in breach of the code.
Finally, regarding News24’s failure to seek comment from the Minister, the Deputy Ombud held that there was ‘no need to seek comment on the parliamentary questions and answers.’
In terms of remedy, the Deputy Ombud’s ruling requires an apology and an update to the article.
Article disclaimer: While we have made every effort to ensure the accuracy of this article, it is not intended to provide final legal advice as facts and situations will differ from case to case, and therefore specific legal advice should be sought with a lawyer.
