Iqbal Survé’s media must apologise to Karyn Maughan and delete Nazi slur column, Press Council finds

By Ferial Haffajee

8 Aug 2024

The Press Council finds a column of hate is not protected as free comment; writer Edmond Phiri won’t show his face.

The Press Council has ordered Iqbal Survé’s Sunday Independent newspaper and other platforms which published a column by mystery writer Edmond Phiri to apologise and take down the column, which compared journalist Karyn Maughan to Nazi film propagandist Leni Riefenstahl.

The column, published in March 2024, sent shockwaves through the media fraternity and wider public as it launched a long-range attack on Maughan for a report on a court case in which Survé was involved. She was called a racist in addition to being compared with Riefenstahl, the film-maker who bolstered Hitler and helped his rise. It was amplified across social media, adding to the harm it caused.

News24 and Maughan complained to the Press Council, and after many months of delays it has now found that the Sunday Independent and all other publications that carried the column must apologise in seven days from 6 August when the finding was made. The headline of the apology must read: “Apology to Karyn Maughan.”

‘Column should be removed’

In addition, the deputy press ombud Franz Krüger sitting with Professor Karthy Govender and Joe Thloloe also found that the column should be removed.

“In considering how to deal with the online version of the article, we took into account that an order to remove an article should be rare, as it changes the record. (Journalism is regarded as a first draft or record of history.) However, we felt special weight should be attached to the severe harm caused to Maughan’s personal and professional reputation.

“Accordingly, we direct that every online version of the article should be removed and replaced with a note that withdraws the article, apologises to Maughan and summarises this ruling,” the panel found.

It deliberated deeply on the importance of protected comment in a democracy. The press code says that “Comment or criticism is protected even if it is extreme, unjust, unbalanced, exaggerated or prejudiced, as long as it is without malice, is on a matter of public interest, has taken fair account of all material facts that are either true or reasonably true, and is presented in a manner that it appears to be comment.”

Ultimately, the panel decided that the column did not meet the standard for protection, and neither did it sufficiently consider Maughan’s dignity and reputation. While it emphasised that journalists are public figures who could be criticised, it found that Survé’s titles could not justify the harm in the public interest.

“The article explicitly aims to present Maughan as a racist propagandist, which amounts to a clear attack on her integrity as a journalist. Journalists build up credibility and respect to the extent that they are trusted, and their personal and professional reputation cannot be neatly separated.”

In a social media age, editors had the additional responsibility to protect women from threats of sexual violence.

Toxic environment

“…of relevance to the discussion of care and consideration is the toxic environment women journalists encounter online. Editors are obliged to consider the likely consequences of the words and approaches they use in a context where threats of sexual violence are only too common. Though an editor may argue they do not have control over the responses of online users, some thought must be given to possible reactions,” the panel has found.

The panel found that a post on X by Survé compounded the harm.

“We are particularly concerned about the X post of 21 March (2024) by Maughan in her evidence, in which he refers to the defence of her proffered by media groups he says are funded by the CIA, using the phrase ‘beat the dog and the owner comes out’. Calling Maughan a dog and using violent imagery in this way is unacceptable,” says the finding.

The writer Edmond Phiri has never been seen. News24 told the panel that he was a composite of several individuals within Survé’s stable. After some back and forth, Sunday Independent editor Sizwe Dlamini got him to attend the hearing.

“Phiri himself declared unambiguously that he was the writer of the piece and that he was writing under his own name. Asked to turn on his camera so the meeting could see him, he said he could not do so for technical reasons. He said the desktop computer he was using did not have a camera. Asked whether he could at least briefly use his mobile phone to show himself, he said he did not have data… We proceeded on the basis that the person we heard was the author…” the panel said.

Reports have found that Survé’s suite of media products manufactures both news and news writers, as Daily Maverick found here. DM

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‘Column should be removed’

Toxic environment