Wow, talk about an attack on free speech, we say, but not so says News24 Editor-in-Chief Andrew Trench. “We have decided to switch off comments on articles as a default from Friday and to implement a different approach to how we handle user contributions and engagement with our content on our platform.”

We, at the Ladysmith Gazette, will never follow this extreme route!

The reason for the comment deletion, adds Trench, is: “Many commentators insist on pushing the boundaries of free speech available to us in South Africa. Comments tediously drift towards hate speech at worst and, at best, are often laced with prejudice. Interesting and considered contributions are drowned out by a cacophony of insults from a minority of users. This is not the experience we wish users to have in our home.”

Bravo, Mr Trench, for striking down the naysayers, racists and trolls! But in so doing, you are drowning out the voice of the man in the street. You are in danger of believing your own hype that News24 is bigger than social media itself. The internet is about freedom to express your voice, not the voices of the few old guard carefully edited not to offend or criticise!

Your answer, Mr Trench, is to not even put on earmuffs to drown out the voices of the oppressed, disenfranchised and unhappy, but to slam the door in their faces. To print only the comments you like and discard what you do not.

While that may work in the world of print media, online is a beast that has no master – the moment you stop interacting, you die. It really is that simple.

While we applaud your efforts to remove the trolls, racists and other prejudiced social commentators, I fear you have but for a brief period halted a voice that so loudly screams, “I want to be heard.” The voice of your readers!

Will it work? Well, you will never know, because you just stopped listening!

We, however, are always listening and our readers are welcome to comment on our stories. Be they closet grammar Nazis, social deviants, regular readers with concerns, or those who have realised that we have made a mistake. We are human, we make mistakes. When they are pointed out to us, we fix them.

Without immediate interaction, we risk losing touch, being unable to fix mistakes and becoming socially irrelevant.

This is not intended to be an attack on News24’s new policy. They have their own demons to fight. We, however, treasure our relationship with our readers – the local newspaper and online brand everyone trusts.

As always, we keep the ban-hammer ready just in case people get too free with their speech. (We did not say we were perfect)

This topic is currently trending on Twitter: #news24comments.

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