LETTER: Sullivan wrong about Sekunjalo ‘conflation’

While I respect Peter Sullivan’s right to his opinion, I must correct certain misperceptions contained in his letter (“Independent Media titles have declined under unethical Survé”, July 21).

This is not surprising given that all too often people such as Sullivan can’t resist the temptation to portray the leadership and editors of Independent Media as being incapable of thinking for themselves, and that we need people like him to think for us. These views are akin to what many of us experienced under apartheid.

There has been no “conflation” of Sekunjalo with Independent Media. Sullivan has made a mistake, and in Business Day printing his letter the public have been handed incorrect information — again. This creates prevailing mistaken perceptions that become truth over time if repeated enough.

Independent Media is a company within the wider Sekunjalo Group. It is Independent Media’s accounts that Standard Bank has threatened with closure. Many other companies associated with Sekunjalo have already had their accounts terminated, with many more on the chopping block awaiting execution.

The closing of Independent Media’s accounts is what we as the editors in the group decry, and what we wrote about, as it will conceivably put our publications out of business. Removing an entire publishing house that represents and caters to a broader audience than other media in SA in a yet-to-be-fully equal or transformed country is censorship.

Sullivan is quite right regarding declining print newspaper sales and thinning broadsheets. Where he is wrong, though, is that this is not specifically an Independent Media or Iqbal Survé problem. Most print media in the world are faced with the same issue, and he is suspiciously silent about this. The news media have moved online, and social media channels are fast becoming the go-to for the connected to receive their news bytes.

We have grown accustomed to this blatant misrepresentation of the facts when it comes to Independent Media. We are the media house that unashamedly tells the truth, the real truth. We are the media house that gives a voice to the voiceless. We aim to continue that. We will not be silenced. We will not be censored.

Aneez Salie
Editor-in-chief, Independent Media

JOIN THE DISCUSSION: Send us an email with your comments to letters@businesslive.co.za. Letters of more than 300 words will be edited for length. Anonymous correspondence will not be published. Writers should include a daytime telephone number.​