CENSORSHIP - The King Commission on June 8 made a ruling preventing live radio and television coverage of the inquiry into cricket captain Hansie Cronje macth-fixing. The reasons Judge King gave for denying their presence related to objections from the counsel for the players. The council argued that having live broadcasts in the inquiry would be intimidating and may have a negative effect on the players' testimonies and consequently on the effectiveness of the commission. FXI expressed its disappointment, saying that the use of electronic media should be perceived as an opportunity for the witnesses to set the record straight if they were indeed not guilty of the corrupt practices. The Media Monitoring Project also expressed its disappointment. "The ruling is particularly disappointing considering current debates in the media to open South Africa's legal proceedings to television", the MMP said in a statement. It also said that while there were some arguments for the position that the presence of television cameras might have an intimidating effect on witnesses, recent research has challenged that. "Research by the Centre for Media and Justice in the UK found that the behaviour of witnesses in court was not significantly affected by the presence of television cameras and that they had in fact had a positive effect on the administratuion of justice", said the MMP.

Meanwhile, Live Africa Network News on June 13 asked the Cape High Court to hear an urgent application in which the radio news syndicate sought temporary permission to broadcast proceedings at the King Commission. The news syndicate's formal application will be heard only next week and the broadcaster, in the mean time, wants an interim order allowing it to broadcast proceeedings at the commission until its case has been decided. Michael Murphy, who represents the new syndicate said that his client accepted the decision taken earlier that the final court hearing be heard next week. FXI, through its media defence fund, has contributed to the legal costs.

COMMUNITY BROADCASTING - "Business Day" on June 7 reported that Radio Safari has been tuned out by the Independet Broadcasting Authority because it did not broadcast in seSwati. In August last year, the IBA held a four year licence application review and after three months of deliberations, refused to renew the station's licence. The last Radio Safari broadcast was aired January 31. Th station claimed to be a world first in conservation and environemntal broadcasting and said there was no replacement station to act as a mouthpiece for SA's wildlife. The station was originally designed for Kruger National Park visitors and all original programming was of a "canned" nature, designed to rotate every three days which is the average leght of stay in the park. Mike Glover, co-founder of the station said: "It's a great pity that Radio Safari has been closed. There appears to be no logical reasoning behind the closure and the benefits afforded by the station to the conservation community and to the local public were immeasurable. Funds raised by advertisers were ploughed into local community projects". It was estimated that the station reached a listenership of between 35 000 and 45 000, about 67% of which was made up of communities in rural areas. CORRUPTION - "The Star" on June 8 reported that a Gauteng hospital medical superintendent and his assistant have been accused of hiding their personal files to avoid paying thousands of rands in mediacl bills to their own hospitals. The wto managers both from Boksburg's Tambo Memorial Hospital, were named in a damning report which highlighted gross inefficiency and maladministration at the hospital. Dr JT de Villiers, acting medial superintent at the hospital until his death two months ago, was named as having owed R4 337 for hispitalisation in September last year. His assistant media superintendent, Dr BM van Collers, was listed as owing R3 809 for treatment dating back to 1996, 1997 and 1999, and her domestic worker was named as owing R377. The hospital's new acting medical superintendent Dr Paul Kapp said that the allegations were untrue. The report, which was leaked to the Democratic Party MPL Jack Bloom, stated that files containing this information were unearthed from their office drawers by internal auditors who investigated the hospital from November 1999 until January.

MEDIA DIVERSITY - "The Star" reported that a new free television channel was launched on June 14. The channel is not on the box, but on a computer that has access to the Internet. The newspaper said that the Digital Veratile Television channel, an Internet television broadcaster, puts viewers round the planet another click into the future of global TV via the Net. Aimed at the young online generation - 18 to 35 year olds, the new British broadcaster not only offered programme content like regular TV but also alluring additional features like a virtual remote control that lets someone know when there was something on the channel which they might like to know. Viewers will also be free from the torment of having to set the video recorder to keep programmes, as DVTV stores all its material in a virtual library which allows users to watch anything they like when they like. The programmes are original and include, music shows, sport animation and drama. To tune in, type in www.DVTVchannel.com

PRESS FREEDOM - "The Mail & Guardian" on June 15 reported that the Cape High Court has dealt a severe blow to press freedom by ruling that the reputation of an institution outweighed a reporter's right to freedom of expression. FXI and the newspaper are considering appealing against the decision, which upheld the expulsion of a Peninsula Technikon journalism student. The technikon expelled Max Hamata in 1999 after he wrote an article published in the "Mail & Guardian" headlined "Sex for sale on campus". Hamata was expelled after a disciplinary hearing where he was refused the right to have legal representation. FXI assisted him with his high court appeal on the grounds that his constitutional right to freedom of expression had been infringed. When Hamata was refused legal representation, he withdrew from the proceedings, which made a finding after an in-camera hearing with no evidence from him. The technikon's rules allow for the expulsion of students for conduct "whether on the technikon premises or not, which brings discredit on the technikon in the eyes of reasonable person". The Judge President of the Cape, Justice John Hlophe and Justice Fritz Brand reviewed the testimony and found that, in the absence of a response from Hamata, this must be accepted as uncontroverted. "At least for the purposes of deciding the application, it must thus be accepted, as was accepted by three disciplinary bodies of the technikon, that Hamata published very serious statements, which were potentially harmful and prejudicial ti the technikon, well knowing that many of these statements were substantially untrue". They rejected an argument by Paul Farlam, who appeared for Hamata and FXI that the technikon's disciplinary hearings did not take the student's constitutional right to freedom of expression into account. Farlam had also argued that the disciplinary hearings had erred in not allowing Hamata to bring a legal representative to its proceedings. "We do not agree with the submission that the factual, legal and constitutional issues involved were unduly complex. In fact, Farlam's argument in this court may well be an illustration of how a relatively simple enquiry can become over-judicialised. For these reasons the decisions cannot be set aside on the basis that the committee refused Hamata's request to be represented by his attorney," the judges said.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS - "Business Day" reported on June 13 that two of the defeated bidders for the SA's third cellular network licence said that new reports on the strengths of each bid for the licence should be made public and not shrouded in secrecy. A report on the six bids is due this week from consultancy Grant Thornto Kessel Feinstein. According to the paper, the report could ratify the choice of Cell C as the winning consortium or highlight errors of judgement which could see the decision overthrown. The SA Telecommunications Regulatory Authority planned to keep the findings confidential. However, the Telia-Telenor and AfricaSpeaks consortiums want them made public. "We strongly urge Satra and the minister of communications to continue their policy of transparency. This process has been fraught with controversy and if the report is not made public you will see even greater delays as all interested parties fight the decision," said Themba Vilakazi, chairperson of Telia-Telenor's empowerment partner Afrozone. The consultants were asked by Satra to re-examine each bid after Satra had already declared Cell C as its choice. The move came after intense criticism that Satra had largely ignored the findings of a report by chartered accountants BDO Spencer Steward, which slated Cell C's financial viability. Satra commissioned Grant Thornton Kessel Feinstein after admitting that if the BDO findings were correct, they could have a "material affect" on which consortium won the licence. Satra spokesperson Kotli Molise confirmed that the report was due this week, but said that it would not be made public as it dealt with financial and business plans which were confidential.

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