5 June 1997

FXI MAKES SUBMISSION TO THE TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION COMMISSION
ON ROLE OF MEDIA DURING APARTHEID

SOURCE: Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI), Johannesburg

(FXI/IFEX) - The Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) on 2 June
1997 presented a submission to the Truth and Reconciliation
Commission (TRC) on the role of the media under apartheid. The
submission was the culmination of five months of intense work by
a team of independent researchers, whose work was coordinated by
the Chairperson of the FXI executive committee, Raymond Louw, and
fellow committee member Clive Emdon. It was the second major
submission made to the TRC on the role of the media, the first
one being by the Media Monitoring Project on 29 May, which
focussed on the role of the South African Broadcasting
Corporation (SABC) and media coverage of particularly events,
including the 1976 student uprising.

FXI, in its lengthy submission, found that the conduct of the
mainstream newspaper industry during apartheid fell short of its
role to properly inform the public and at times it colluded with
the authorities by entering into agreements that resulted in
self-censorship. In some of the findings of the researchers it
was found that the overriding interests of business and profits
compromised the journalistic goals of the mainstream press. "The
press failed to reflect the mass opposition or main black
movements against apartheid and failed to adequately train or
employ black journalists," the report said.

This was exacerbated by the virtual "guerrilla war" which the
government waged against the media through the extensive list of
laws that restricted journalists and publications as well as
actions taken to intimidate journalists and publishers with the
effect of silencing them. The report pointed out that an
essential part of the survival of apartheid was to keep the
public ignorant of the real motives behind, and effects of, the
acts and policies of the regime. This was done through an
"arsenal of security and other laws, which over the years almost
completely eroded the freedom of the press" and which also
"protected the state from having to be accountable for the
actions of its police and defence forces".

The Afrikaans press was found to be an official organ of the
ruling National Party and slavishly propounded its policies
especially in regard to the implementation of apartheid.
Similarly, the SABC was a bastion of apartheid propaganda, with
extensive government interference in the presentation of news.

FXI had been unable to secure the cooperation of the SABC in
order to investigate what had occurred at the corporation during
the apartheid years. As a result it called on the TRC to conduct
its own urgent investigation of the SABC.

Another problem FXI faced in its investigation was to fully
investigate the network of government spies, informers and agents
which the authorities injected into the newsrooms. A list of
names had been given to the TRC, but FXI was in doubt about its
authenticity, and was willing to leave it up to the TRC to
further investigate this. FXI cautioned though that such an
investigation should not result in the victimization of innocent
people, since some journalists named as spies were often victims
of the former government's disinformation and dirty tricks
operations against the media.

FXI also called on the TRC to approach members of the Black
Editors' Forum and the Forum for Black Journalists, who refused
to collaborate with the FXI investigation, to invite them to give
evidence about the imprisonment and treatment by police, since a
substantial number of black journalists were tortured. Such
evidence would be in the interests of trying to establish as
comprehensive a picture as possible of what took place during the
apartheid years.

In considering the extent of the human rights abuses arising from
the media, the FXI maintained that, "Censorship which prevents
people from knowing what is going on or what is being done in
their name is a gross human rights abuse.

"The proposition must surely then be that it is those who
construct that censorship framework who are the perpetrators of
the abuse and that all others who are forced to comply are not
the perpetrators but the victims unless they are willing
collaborators.

"The victims would then not be just the media, but everybody
else, except the collaborators, because censorship prevents
ordinary people -- as well as newspapers, radio and TV -- from
communicating.

"Thus, those who willingly collaborated by supporting censorship,
by withholding information, by misinformation and disinformation
and by propagandising should be accused of perpetrating this
evil".

The FXI's submission, along with all other submissions on the
media which the TRC will receive this month, will be used to
inform the commission on whether it should hold a public hearing
into the role of the media, and what the scope of such a hearing
should be. It is more than likely that the TRC will request that
former owners or editors appear before it to give an account of
their "deals" with government and the extent to which this
curtailed the freedom of the media.

The entire FXI submission was made up of nineteen separate papers
totalling more than 600 pages.

For further information, contact FXI at PO Box 30668,
Braamfontein, 2017, Johannesburg, South Africa, tel: +27 11 403
8403/4, fax: +27 11 403 8309, e-mail: fxi@wn.apc.org , Internet:
http://fxi.org.za/

The information contained in this press release is the sole
responsibility of FXI. In citing this material for broadcast or
publication, please credit FXI.
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