Blog Reflective Piece

Doing the package was interesting experience for me as it meant I had to find different story angles which was sometimes difficult task to do.

 I originally had an idea of portraying a life of a refugee which seems easy to do at first but finding someone who would be willing to let me in their lives was a bit difficult. It was also interesting how I had to ‘convince the person that this was just an assignment and something that would be published .

Which made a bit sceptical as had this been an actual story where I had to post it up on a news website and working under dead line what would I have done.

What was frustrating though was not being able to find someone who wanted to share their story with me .But it  was  motivating having to push myself as a journalist to be able to speak to them in a way that they would ease up to me.

The Durban University of Technology held a panel discussion on media freedom in South Africa to commemorate world freedom day.

The importance of press freedom is to raise awareness of the importance of the freedom of the press and remind our government of their duty to respect and uphold the right to freedom of expression. The Windhoek declaration, declares that, “The world­wide trend towards democracy and freedom of information and expression is a fundamental contribution to the fulfillment of human aspirations”.

Professor Ruth Teer who is UNESCO Chair in communications highlighted the importance of the declaration and discussed the concept paper that is currently being discussed in the international debate Tunis.

“Media freedom is fragile and not at the disposal of everyone and you don’t have to go to Tunis where the Arab uprising happened to see that this is true”.

She went on to say that the press freedom is not an issue in the making, “It might be a human right but it’s not something that is anything close to being established “.

Murray Hunter, who is the Right to Know coordinator, highlighted the establishment of the campaign as a “direct unified element towards the secrecy bill”. He went on to say that they have recognised this as a symbol of a much broader problem as this will make it harder and harder for journalists .“The right to access is not enjoyed by everyone “, he said.

Dr Rene Smith DUT Journalism programme Coordinator pointed out some of the challenges to press freedom as being self censorship, she went on to say that there is a culture of fear and censorship, ”we are scared to tell our stories “.

It was distinguished that this is something that has to be dealt in schools by academics, lectures and professors where they should assist as ‘censoring’s something that begins in schools. “All of us take responsibility and accountability “she said.