Shifting digital media ecologies and how copyright law should adjust and adapt to journalism

• Citation: (2023) IPLJ 16
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.47348/SAIPLJ/v11/a2
• Published date: 18 January 2024
• Pages: 16-41
• Author: Hungwe, B.
• Date: 18 January 2024

16

https://doi.o rg/10.4734 8/SAIP LJ/v11/a2

SHIFTING DIGITAL MEDIA

ECOLOGIES AND HOW COPYRIGHT

LAW SHOULD ADJUST AND ADAPT

TO JOURNALISM

 

PhD Candidate, Sch ool of Law, University of Witwatersran d

ABST RACT

Digital Age misap propriation and plagiaris m of published onl ine news content by some

South Afric an media proprie tors are negatively af fecting professiona lism and integr ity

in journal ism. Such infringement s invariably lead to great ten sion, harmful compet ition

pattern s and dwindli ng revenues. Frequently, digit al news misappro priation creat es

factual di stortions, imp airing the democ ratic function s of journalism and he althy national

discourse mot ivated by legitimate publ ic interest considera tions. A 2019 Reuters Institut e

Digital News Repor t revealed that, globall y, South Africans spend t he greatest number of

hours browsing on line, with 36% of the population enjoy ing sharing news content , while

40% enjoy commenti ng on news via social medi a or news websites. While th e Digital Age

has generated m any forms of active players in jour nalism, this paper i s limited to digital

            

proprietors o r competitors. This qual itative contribution prop oses that media proprieto rs

collectively seek an a lternative dis pute resolution appr oach to copyrig ht infringe ments

through a com prehensive ‘Media Arbit ration Copyr ight Infr ingements Code’ wit h

incorpor ated ‘Hot News Misapprop riation Doctr ine’ provisions to reg ulate the conduc t

of the media and to ad dress proliferating dig ital infringements . The Media Code should

also guide the p roposed ‘Media Copy right Tribunal’ ope rating withi n a commercial

arbitration f ramework in dispute adjudicat ion and resolution. This paper a rgues that the

Media Code with t he Misappropriation D octrine is a more vi able approach for addressi ng

media copyr ight disputes bec ause it largely protect s facts contai ned in published news

content. Fur thermore, a Med ia Code that is dr afted addr essing media copy right digital

infract ions using the ethica l benchmarks set by th e ‘Press Code of Ethics and Cond uct for

     

informal co mmercial arbitrat ion framework that expe dites dispute resolut ion is desirable.

        Mo neyweb (Pt y) Limited v

Media 4 Limited and An other, and the fact that it took about thr ee years for the dispute

to be resolved. Moreover, th is paper argues that the cu rrent Copyright Act 98 of 1978 is

less effective in de aling with the ethic al quandary fac ed by journalism in t he Digital Age.

KEYWORDS: jour nalism, copyr ight, safe deali ng, Digital Age, in fringement s,

misappropriation

 

The Digital Age has incontest ably presented enormous copy right and

professional ethical challenges to South Af rica’s media proprietors, spawni ng

* AArb; Nationa l Diploma in Mass Communicat ions (Harare Poly) LLBS (UZ) LLM (M idlands

State Universit y) LLM (UKZN ), Specialisat ion Constru ction Law, Accelerated A rbitration

Course for Advocat es & Attorneys, AA (SA), NPC.

(2023) IPLJ 16

© Juta and Company (Pty) Ltd

https://doi.o rg/10.4734 8/SAIP LJ/v11/a2

digital reproductions r elating to news aggregations, m isappropriation,

scraping and online plag iarism of news content.1 Almost eight years afte r

Moneyweb (Pty) Limited v Media 24 Limited 

the general public is register ing ancillary conc erns about such unscr upulous

conduct. A Business Day re ader pointed out that uneth ical digital practice

is thriving i n the newsrooms, and that the st ate of journalism and endles s

corruption have become blu rred in the public mind. L owe wrote: ‘The

manner of […] blatant copying and d issemination by news organis ations is

       

and the laziness a nd lack of integrity of many who pretend to be holders of the

title of journalist.’2 Indisputably, traditional pri nt journalism has profoundly



available through smar tphones, tablets or computers.3 Such t ransformative

power of technology has provided new digital capabil ities that can copy,

paste, manipulate, di stort and misappropriate news.

         

and increased acce ss and pace of sharing news content. Res earch also

demonstrates th at unrestrai ned digital news inf ringement by some media

proprietors or competitor s is facilitating unet hical business practices , sloppy

journalism and a n increase in un reliable news.4 Concomitant to such digital

infringeme nts are the inexorable competitive tensions wit hin South Afr ica’s

media industr y causing dwindli ng revenue patterns. Moreover, the qualit y

of news deteriorates, impai ring the democratic f unctions of journal ism and

the accompanying healthy nat ional discourse infor med by legitimate public

interest considerations. Adelabu and Mugaw un highlight the pre sent digital

predicament of journali sm:

[The] lack of enforceable jou rnalistic r ules, ethic al codes, gatekee pers, and the la ck of

legal standa rds, means tha t journalist s’ rights and obligation s regarding th e appropriation

              

professional skil ls, resources, time, a nd effort to gather news produ cts to disseminate to t he

public. The news produ ct does not merely tra nspose itself from any journ alist’s handbook

into the mind of a ny reader. Even though the Intern et may make it seem so, the news is not

  

research and w riting?’ have new meaning s in the context of online jour nalism. The answer s

to these quest ions have utmost impo rtance in a de mocratic societ y, where we value a free

marketplace of ide as to facilitate pr udently informed decisio n-making.5

1 See Moneyweb (P ty) Limited v Media 24 Limited a nd Another 2016 (4) SA 591 (GJ) paras 129 and

139. The court obser ved at para 129: ‘Fin24 5 was published onl ine within seven hour s, and on

the same news day a s Moneyweb 5. Almost all of Fin 24 5 is a word-for-word copy of Moneyweb

5 [article]. In my view, Fin24 5 has t aken more than a substa ntial part: it has taken t he core of

Moneyweb 5.’

2 Mark Lowe ‘LETTER : Repeated plagia rism unchecke d in SA journali sm’ BusinessDay,

6 April 2022, avai lable at https://www.businesslive.co.z a/bd/opinion/let ters/2022-04-0 6-letter-

repeated-plagiarism-unchecked-in-sa-journalism/ (accessed 1 August 2023).

3 C Roper, N Newman & A Schu lz ‘Reuters Ins titute Digit al News Report 2019 South Af rica

Supplementar y Report’ Reuter s Institute for the St udy of Journalism (2019) 12–13.

4 Rop er et al (n3) at 10–11.

5 Qu oted in Roper et al (n3) at 49.

SHIFTING DIGITAL MEDIA ECOLOGIES AND HOW COPYRIGHT

LAW SHOULD ADJUST AND ADAPT TO JOURNALISM 17

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