Right to Know (R2K) voted 2012 Newsmaker of the Year

At a breakfast hosted in conjunction with the Wits Business School (WBS) the Johannesburg Press Club (JPC) announced that the Right to Know (R2K) Coalition Campaign has been voted its 2012 Newsmaker of the Year.

 (JPC) said that the R2K Coalition, which is inclusive of more than 400 organisations and a membership of over 30 0000 individuals, has displayed extraordinary courage, commitment and consistency in ensuring extensive news coverage of the issues it addressed during the course of the year and managed to maintain a lead position on national and international news agendas.

“Good communication is central to keeping a subject in the public eye. The R2K Coalition, like its name suggests, relentlessly pursued the public’s right to understand the full scope of the Protection of State Information Bill (POIB) – known as the Secrecy Bill – and how it would impact the media and every citizen of this country. Access to information, as well as freedom of expression and association, are hard-won rights which are enshrined in the South African constitution. These values were continuously re-iterated, re-stated and re-ported by the Coalition.”

Hopewell Radebe, a past Chairman of the JPC, announced that the Club also decided to make a Special Mention award to the Public Protector, Advocate Thuli Madonsela and the members of her team.  He said that in the history of the Johannesburg Press Club, it has happened only twice that members repeat the nomination for an individual or institution in two consecutive years. The first was President Nelson Mandela and now, South Africa’s Public Protector, Advocate Thuli Madonsela.

“After discussion the club leadership thought it best to bestow a special mention award since it has not awarded the same person twice before.  This gesture, yet again, is an acknowledgement of the work of the Public Protector’s office which continues to attract the attention of the media and probably the admiration of the nation.”

Amina Frense, deputy Chair of the JPC said that it is always difficult to single out a winner especially in a year that the South African Olympic Team returned home with several gold medals. “We are all aware of several other high profile news events that happened in the country during this period. The Marikana tragedy was an incident where the battle for trade union membership played a major role and is continuing to generate considerable news coverage.  Our members also nominated trade unionist and Cosatu president, Zwelinzima  Vavi who was a strong contender for the award.

Professor Wendy Ngoma, Director and Head of the Wits Business School welcomed guests and members of the media to this event.  She pointed out how important it was for a graduate school of business to interact with the media and to support the processes of open two-way communication. “All good business is dependent on an uninterrupted flow of accurate communication and, therefore, it is appropriate for our school to promote close relationships with the various members of the Johannesburg Press Club.”

Mixael de Kock said that the Johannesburg Press Club’s annual award was not solely based on how much news a nominee generated during the year but also on the manner in which the news was generated and, to what extent the country benefitted from such news.

He concluded:  “All our nominees this year were truly deserving of this coveted award. We are pleased that the vote finally fell upon the R2K Coalition and its ongoing campaign. By shear persistence and cooperation, ongoing media coverage had been assured which, in turn, kept the people of South Africa and also the global community informed and aware of the true values of democracy.”