‘If a journalist gets information from a person, friendship must be put aside’: veteran journo

Media ethics were in the spotlight last week as the Madlanga commission heard that an SABC TV journalist accepted a R500 “gift” for passing on a phone number.

Though the nature of the relationship that may have existed between journalist Natasha Phiri and Sgt Fannie Nkosi was yet to be explored, the SABC placed Phiri on immediate suspension pending an investigation.

Questions that have risen include: can journalists form friendships with their professional contacts or sources and accept gifts from them?

Veteran journalist Anton Harber said there were “serious ethical” concerns even if Nkosi and Phiri were genuinely friends.

“The Press Code and the SABC’s own code make it clear that journalists should not accept gifts which may compromise their integrity or affect their editorial decisions,” Harber said.

But what if it’s proven that the money accepted had nothing to do with influencing editorial decisions in any way?

If this was payment for a phone number, as suggested, this raises another set of ethical questions about why a journalist is selling people’s numbers.

—  Anton Harber, veteran journalist

Harber believes journalists should refuse the money from anyone who is considered a source.

“Offered money by a source, the journalist should refuse it or, at the very least, declare it to her editor,” Harber said.

It was not immediately clear if Phiri declared the gift as investigations were expected to look into that as well.

Harber said though there were “sometimes grey areas, where a source is also a friend”, the general principle of dealing with sources should always apply.

“If you are getting information from that source, then the journalist should be professional, put aside the friendship and deal with the source by the book,” Harber said.

He added: “Even if it was a genuine friendship gift, if it was from a source or a subject of her reporting, it should have been declared so her editor would know and decide what needs to happen with it.”

He, however, said other ethical questions come into play if the money was received in exchange for a number of other professional contacts.

“If this was payment for a phone number, as suggested, this raises another set of ethical questions about why a journalist is selling people’s numbers. People give journalists their private numbers for a particular purpose, and to sell it is a breach of trust.”

Nkosi, who also appeared to be a fixer, had stated that he knew Phiri but struggled to explain the “gift” as he claimed he was not paying her for information.

“To clarify the matter of paying Natasha for information, I did not pay for information … I just gave her money because I know her,” Nkosi told the commission.

It appears that Phiri had said: “not even a thank you,” after sending Nkosi a number, to which Nkosi responded by offering “a token of appreciation”.

“She was expecting a ‘thank you’ from me, just a thank you, so I said: ‘where do I send a token of appreciation?” Nkosi told the commission.

He said he told Phiri to “buy Red Bull” with the money he sent her and this had nothing to do with paying for information.

SABC spokesperson Mmoni Ngubane said the public broadcaster viewed the matter “in a serious light” and that the matter would be investigated.

“The SABC always encourages its staff members to uphold the corporation’s values of trust, respect and integrity in all their interactions,” Ngubane said.