Weekly report

Focus of the week

11-May-02

In the past few weeks the National Intelligence Agent (NIA) in South Africa raised an outcry among journalists after it demanded intimate details about their private lives. Journalists were asked to disclose details about whom they slept with, whether they are homosexuals or not and several other questions related to the setting up of the presidential press corps.

The reason behind the questioning was for security clearances for journalists who would cover presidential activities. The decision to form a presidential press corps was agreed between the South African Editor's Forum (SANEF) and the government. The meeting came after government complained about bad publicity it received over its stance on the Aids and the anti-retroviral issue and also on how it handled the Zimbabwean issue.

“We are not against the idea of a press corps but we definitely disagree with the line of questioning,” said Mondli Makhanya one of the members of the SANEF council. He said the practice is an international phenomenon and they saw no problem about it. The rationale behind the idea is to forge good relations between media and state and allow a better flow of information. This suggestion has implications on whether the media will able to do their job without government interference. Apart from the press’s role of informing, the press also serves as a critical voice. The state in order to control the people it would want to censor the information that reaches the public, it would also want praises and not criticisms. There are inherent contradictions between the state and the media and the press can only meet its mandate, by widening those contradictions and widening debate. The uncritical acceptance of the idea of press corps should be a matter of great concern. It seems the media did not bother to weigh the implications of a group of journalists being registered as an elite section to cover the presidential activities.

The implications are obviously far reaching and pose a serious threat to free press. It now means journalists will have to go through a process in which the government would allow or refuse them to access information to enable them to cover matters around the president. Editors have always been the ones to chose journalists to cover particular events and for this to lie in the hand of the government is highly problematic. This could even set a precedent for several government departments and other institutions to demand that all journalists dealing with them should be registered.

The establishment of such a structure will also involve rules that may actually amount to censorship. With another result being that journalists may also censor themselves to fit into the structure.

Diary of the Week

Defamation law faces test in Holomisa case.

Defamation law may face substantial changes if the Constitutional Court allows the Sowetan Sunday World newspaper to appeal against a ruling made by the High Court in the case of the United Democratic Movement Buntu Holomisa.

According to the Sowetan newspaper of May 8, Holomisa sued the Sowetan Sunday World for defamation. The newspaper argued that the law should require the onus to be on the plaintiff to prove the falseness of the statement instead of on the defendant to prove that the report was true.

Gilbert Marcus, a lawyer for the Sunday World, told the Constitutional Court that the law should find a balance between the right to dignity and the right to freedom of expression. He said that there was an imbalance at the moment in favour of the right to dignity.

Public attacks a woman after Special Assignment programme.

The Soweto woman, who was shown on the South African Broadcasting Corporation’s current affairs programme, Special Assignment went into hiding after the public attacked at her home.

According to the Star newspaper of May 9 the woman was shown on Special Assignment for allegedly dealing in human body parts. The bones she sold were however found to be those of a cow.

Another journalist arrest in Zimbabwe

Another journalist was arrested in Zimbabwe in the case of a beheaded woman. It is alleged that the Zimbabwean opposition party Movement for Democratic Change said Zanu Pf youth killed Brandina Todyanemandu by cutting off her head. The newspapers picked up the story and reported it. According to the Citizen newspaper, Pius Wakatama is the fourth journalist to be arrest for reporting on the matter. Two journalists from the Daily News and one from the British Guardian were arrested last week for reporting on the alleged beheaded case. All journalists are charged under the new Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act.

SABC fails to meet mandate-ANC

South Africa’s ruling party the African National Congress (ANC) has accused the public broadcaster the South African Broadcast Corporation (SABC) for failing meet its mandate.

According to a report in the Business Day newspaper of May 7, 2002 the ruling party will tell the broadcaster today that it was biased towards entertainment, and a balance was required between education, information and entertainment and that more African languages should used.

ANC, communications committee chairperson Nat Kekana says, “We would like to see more current affairs programmes in all languages so that the SABC becomes a platform for citizens to participate in discussions about their lives. The SABC, we believe is falling short of its mandate as a public broadcaster. It should be more developmental in its work.”

According to Kekana the SABC needs to end transformation in order to meet its mandate. The apartheid regime used the SABC as its mouthpiece and the broadcaster engaged in a process of transformation soon after the democratic government was elected in 1994. The ANC said it now believes that the broadcaster should end the process of transformation and start implementing services.