Analysing 66,446 stories in 195 titles from 37 countries, it showed that the concerns may have been different but that Germany also received a rough ride in the run-up to its tournament. But they may be disregarding the fact that the British press is likely to be as criticial – if not more so – of an event in its own back yard.Īnalysis by the media monitoring group Media Tenor suggests that the way in which the World Cup build-up has been reported is not unusual. Several Canadian papers, and many South African ones, have looked to the London Olympics as an opportunity for revenge.
"What I read in the British papers bears absolutely no relation to what I've been seeing in these games," said the IOC's director of communications, Mark Adams. Hard on the heels of Canadian outrage at reporting of the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, when a pile-up of problems at the start of the games provoked a major row between the International Olympic Committee and sections of the British press, there is a pattern emerging. One tabloid even featured a picture of Fifa president Sepp Blatter on the lavatory on its front page. In particular, there have been searching questions asked of Fifa, with one newspaper winning a lengthy court battle to be able to reveal the details of the contract between the governing body and the host nation. It is not as though the same South African media that have railed against the foreign press have been slow to question the tournament. Yet there has also been a tetchiness to some of the reaction in the South African media and, in particular, from tournament organisers, that suggests an unwillingness to engage on genuine issues that are central to the country's future. Particularly controversial examples are linked to, copied, pasted and passed around while more measured arguments are passed over. The web has also been a factor, meaning that over the top conjecture is given the same weight as finely argued investigation and ensuring that all articles, in all papers are available internationally within moments of being published.
The criticism has been further complicated by the fact that many South African newspapers syndicate a sizeable amount of content from UK newspapers and several are modelled on their British counterparts. But you need to keep it in proportion and you need a sense of perspective." These things are domestic priorities – crime, health, education. I am not trying to pretend that there aren't problems in South Africa, and nor are the politicians. Nicola Brewer, the British high commissioner in South Africa who was in London last week ahead of the World Cup, said: "There has been a sense that the tabloids in particular have focused in a rather sensational way on some of the negative stories. Would the money lavished on new stadiums be better spent on other priorities? Or had winning the right to host a World Cup prompted a leap forward in terms of investment in infrastructure, transport and tourism that simply wouldn't have happened without it?īut over two years there has been a growing sense in South Africa that some of the reporting from British newspapers in particular has been overly negative and, for some, retained an undercurrent of post-colonial superiority that, followed to its logical conclusion, would ensure that no World Cup or Olympic Games ever took place outside the US and Europe. Will the venues be ready? What is the level of the security threat? Will visitors be overcharged for tickets and hotel rooms? But, given that this is the first African World Cup and is taking place in a country with a particular history, there are also additional questions. Some are the same ones as those faced by any country hosting a major tournament. It is beyond question that there are a string of issues surrounding the South African World Cup that are open to legitimate probing. That left UK journalists based in South Africa desperately trying to explain to colleagues that the Star's editorial line was not representative of the British press as a whole.
And that was before a Daily Star front page warned that England fans may be "caught up in a machete race war" in a "crime ravaged" country. He railed against the "really bad and sad" reporting in Europe, and in particular Germany and England, which, he said, was skewing perceptions of South Africa and harming ticket sales. J erome Valcke, the under- pressure Fifa secretary general, was unequivocal when asked at the turn of the year why the number of overseas visitors planning to travel to South Africa for the World Cup was down on expectations.
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