Samenvatting

The South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission has been claimed to be one of the most important truth commissions. Moreover, it has been the first truth commission to use media extensively in its initiatives. The SATRC was created to address the atrocities caused by the apartheid, and furthermore, to establish a common understanding among South Africans with regard to the past. In addition, the Commission was created as a ‘third way’ institution as it functions between the government and the public.
The success of the Commission of South Africa is said to be due to the local media involvement within its reconciliation and truth related initiatives, such as truth hearings. Therefore, this research was conducted in order to answer the research question of ‘What type of impact did the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission’s media involvement have on the national reconciliation process in Post-apartheid South Africa?’. Furthermore, this research was conducted in order to define whether the local media indeed influenced the national reconciliation process and if so, in what ways.
The research started by defining the key concepts and analytical framework, explaining reconciliation and national healing in a South African context and defining the role of media as a reconciliatory tool. After that, the research focused on the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission by briefly describing its background and then covering the reconciliation and healing process initiatives of the Commission e.g. truth hearings. An analysis was conducted regarding different media outlets, such as television and radio, and their function in South Africa. In addition, those media outlets that were used in the Commission’s functions when it comes to informing the public about the initiatives were defined. Overall, it became evident that the broadcasted media including television and radio programs were used the most (Cole, 2014). They were chosen by the Commission in order to have the most cost and time effective method.
The focus of this research was to examine the local media and its role in post-apartheid South Africa. Therefore, the background of the local media environment in South Africa was fully explored. This was done in order to define how the media’s role in the society had changed with the democratic transition that started to take place in 1994. The evaluation of media as a peace building tool was done in order to define the shortcomings, as well as the advantages of its use in informing the public about the initiatives related to truth, reconciliation and peace building.
In addition, the analysis of the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission using media was also evaluated by examining the objectives and motives of the Commission. The research reflects that the Commission had an extensive agenda that wanted to address the past by implementation of truth telling initiatives and by granting amnesties. Yet, the agenda was largely criticized by academics for not addressing the ethnic division in South Africa.
An analysis of risks and shortcomings was also conducted in order to define whether or not the media used for informing the public about truth proceedings was objective or not. The research results showed that there was no clarity among scholars regarding the objectivity question. Instead, the research results indicated that there was a gradual shift of the objectivity, meaning that on the surface level the media reporting seemed objective, yet when looking into the methods and reporting style, this became unclear. After looking into the SATRC’s objectives, the outcome of involving media within the processes was evaluated from both the Commission’s perspective, as well as from a national healing perspective. From the Commission’s perspective, the media involvement was a success, as it was able to inform large groups of people about its actions and initiatives. However, from a national healing perspective the process was not seen as such due to the fact that some people involved in the process e.g. through truth hearings, were not satisfied with the public nature of the confessions. Moreover, the Commission was accused of exploitation of people’s individual suffering for common good.
The results of this research indicated that even though the process of the Commission and media involvement had mixed results in terms of the effectiveness in promoting and enhancing the national reconciliation, it is clear that the media had a vital impact on the nation when it comes to communicating and addressing the issue of apartheid past. After all, without the local media involvement, some of the South African people would not have realized the magnitude and nature of the apartheid crimes.