The Freedom of Expression Institute is outraged at the raids by the elite Scorpion police unit on the SA Broadcasting Corporation, the BBC, Reuters and Associates Press news agencies and the offices of the National Association of Broadcasters to obtain video tapes recording the murder of the Cape Town gangster Rashied Staggie two years ago.

The action, which was approved by the National Director of Public Prosecutions, Bulelani Ngcuka, is a flagrant breach of the spirit and the letter of the Record of Understanding reached between the Ministers of Justice and of Safety and Security and Ngcuka in February last year. The agreement clearly recognises the need "under appropriate circumstances, that their (the media) sources and information should be protected" and lays down certain procedures which have to be followed by the authorities before a subpoena may be issued in terms of the Criminal Procedure Act. The subpoena authorising the searches today (October 19) were in terms of Section 20, 21 and 25 of the Criminal Procedure Act.

Though the negotiations that led to the agreement related to Section 205 of the Criminal Procedure Act (the clause which empowers a court to demand the identity of journalists' sources or information that journalists may have relating to the commission of crime) the document states clearly that the agreement would include, but not limited to, Section 179 and 205 of the Crimina Procedure Act. The police say their action is not a breach of the agreement because they are not requesting anyone to provide the information or to testify in court. This is a blatant attempt to circumvent the agreement.

The removal of the tapes under a subpoena is, indeed, a method of forcing the media to provide information which is specifically regulated by the agreement. For those tapes to be accepted as evidence in court proceedings the persons who made them would have to testify. FXI also draws the attention of the National Director of Public Prosecutions and the government that a more inappropriate day to raid the papers could not have been chosen. October 19 is Press Freedom Day and commemorates the raids conducted by the previous government on newspapers in 1977 when numerous journalists were imprisoned without trial or banned and newspapers closed down.

These raids will be taken all over the world as a signal that the SA government has adopted the practices of the previous government in its relations with the media and that it is not prepared to uphold and maintain the Constitutional right of freedom of expression and freedom of the media. The media has stated time and again that by demanding sources or information about criminal acts which the media believes will compromise it the authorities are attacking the integrity of the media and seriously inhibiting it in carrying out its duty to report freely and without fear or favour.

In the process they are labelling the media as police informers. Should the public believe that the media is prepared ti act as police informers, sources of information held by the public will dry up and the media will not be able to carry out its duties.

Contact: Raymond Louw (Executive Member) 082 446 5155 Laura Pollecutt (Executive Director) 083 Nanagolo Leopeng (Information Officer) 082 897 5452