Appeal Decision: MXit vs Independent Newspapers

Press Appeals Panel chairperson Judge Ralph Zulman has refused the cell phone social network MXit Lifestyle leave to appeal against a decision by the Press Ombudsman in their complaint against Independent Newspapers that reported that a couple suspected that their daughter disappeared from school with boys she met on the network.

The Ombudsman earlier told the network that after careful consideration, he had decided not to entertain its complaint because the newspapers were not in breach of the Press Code.

“Your complaint rests on two arguments,” he said, “that the newspapers abused the MXit brand name by using it ‘without any substantiated facts’ and you believe the stories sensationalised the news; and that the stories were an ‘incorrect reporting of facts, without confirmation, to be construed as the truth by any reader’…

“In all the reports the newspapers indicated through phrases like ‘it is understood’, ‘it is believed’, and ‘Nabeela’s parents suspected’ that they were reporting what they had been told by the parents and the girl’s friends. All these devices show the reader that the newspapers are not saying it is true or it is not – they were merely reporting what they had been told.“It is fact that the parents suspected the girl had left with people she had met on MXit. The parents’ suspicions are not a fabrication by the newspapers.

“Even if the newspapers had written the story without mentioning the brand name, chances are that, as probably the biggest social network in the country, you would still have been offended.”

The Ombudsman referred to a report in The Star the day after he had received the complaint, headlined Girls taught about responsible use of social networks, that suggested to him that MXit too was concerned about the abuse of social networks by bullies and identity thieves, among other things.

“You were teaching the girls (at Parktown Girls) the motto ‘Think before you click’. You were asking the girls to protect themselves.

“The same concern probably lay behind the newspapers’ reports and nowhere in the reports is MXit accused of any wrongdoing. The MXit brand name has not been abused.”

aIn refusing MXit leave to appeal Judge Zulman said he was satisfied that there was no reasonable prospect that the Appeals Panel could come to a decision different to that of the ombudsman.