FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION NEWS FROM SOUTH AFRICA (JUNE 13- JUNE 19)

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AND THE COURTS: The Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) on June 19 re-launched its Media Defence Fund (MDF), renaming it the Freedom of Expression Defence Fund. In a statement the FXI said the relaunch of its defence fund reflected the broadening of its role to include all cases involving freedom of expression and access to information, and not only those involving the media. Speaking at the re-launching, the former editor of the Mail and Guardian newspaper, Anton Harber, said that while the number of court cases against the media had decreased, "The need for the Defence Fund remains." He said we had to continue fighting for those who believed that national unity came from argument and debate and not "fake consensus". Harber noted that freedom of expression was not just one in a long list of rights that was part of our constitution, but "is a vital right that protects other rights".
"The right to vote would be meaningless without freedom of expression," he said. The MDF was setup as a committee of the FXI in 1994. It predecessor was the Media Defence Trust (MDT), which was established in 1989 in response to the wave of state action against the media, such as the closure of newspapers and detention of journalists. Since its inception as the MDT, the defence fund had assisted almost 70 cases involving freedom of expression and access to information. Without this assistance the matters would in many cases never have been heard in court, or defendants properly represented. The fund pays lawyers at a human rights tariff, set by the committee once a year, and which is substantially lower than normal professional fees.

PUBLIC BROADCASTING: Concerns that the core functions of the public broadcaster, the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC), may suffer as a result of a massive staff exodus were dispelled by the SABC on June 13. The corporation confirmed the previous day that more 1 000 staff would leave the corporation by the end of the month, many of them as a result of voluntary retrenchment packages. The move was in line with a massive rationalisation process at the SABC, which resulted in a decision to downscale many departments and to retrench 1 400 staff. Most of the staff losses were in the production arm of the corporation, with no journalists reportedly axed or resigning. A SABC spokesman said production was not a core area of activity in the SABC since ready-made products could be bought from overseas while there was also a strong local independent production industry. On June 15, the SABC announced a business plan that would reportedly save it from financial ruin while at the same time enabling it to deliver on its public broadcasting mandate. SABC group chief executive Zwelakhe Sisulu said the corporation had substantially reduced its running costs and had put in place strategies that would introduce dynamism in the running of the corporation. He said the SABC would out source most of its production work with the exception of news and current affairs.

MEDIA & HUMAN RIGHTS - The Forum for Black Journalists (FBJ) on June 13 accused the English and Afrikaans press and the SABC of wittingly colluding with successive governments to perpetuate the system of Apartheid. The accusation was contained in the FBJ’s submission to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The FBJ told the TRC that it wold seek "to indict the South African media as a mere extension of the apartheid system during the period March 1960 to May 1994". It said the media’s collusion with apartheid took the form of "actively enforcing discriminatory laws in their own institutions, using terminology and language that was ideologically in congruence with the National Party governments and in conflict with the forces fighting for the eradication of apartheid". The TRC is expected to receive further submissions later this month from various media owners in the English and Afrikaans press. It is not likely that the SABC will make submission, but the corporation has promised to co-operate with any probe by the TRC.

JOURNALISTS: The Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa (BCCSA) on June 15 found the SABC guilty of contravening the BCCSA Code of Conduct by reporting that necklacing was started by White Rhodesian security forces. Necklacing is brutal form of execution that involves placing a petrol-laced tyre around the neck of the victim and setting it alight. The finding by the BCCSA followed a complaint by the Flame Lily Foundation (FLF), an association of ex-Rhodesian soldiers, about a statement made by SABC television presenter Max du Preez during his programme, TRC Special Report. Du Preez said that necklacing was first started by White Rhodesian security forces in the 1970's and then brought to South Africa by the security forces. The FLF said this statement was both untrue and malicious. The BCCSA said that the claim by Du Preez could not be substantiated by documentation before the commission, and thus upheld the FLF’s complaint that the statement was untrue. However, the BCCSA said there was no evidence that the SABC or Du Preez had acted from malicious motives. The BCCSA is an independent body which adjudicates between the public and broadcasting institutions which voluntarily subscribe to the BCCSA Code of Conduct.

ACCESS TO INFORMATION: The TRC heard in a submission on June 17 that asbestos mining companies had suppressed the findings of scientific research in the 1960s which documented the health risks of exposure to asbestos. The claim was made by the Health and Human Rights Project (HHRP), which said the role of the private sector in health-related human rights abuses had not been properly probed. The submission by the project was part of a number of submissions heard by the TRC into the role of the medical fraternity during apartheid. In its submission, HHRP said asbestos had been extensively mined in the Northern Cape and that from the 1960s a research unit attached to the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research began investigating the relationship between asbestos and cancer. The findings by Prof Ian Webster, published in a confidential report on 1962, showed that the risk of contracting asbestosis in the asbestos mining areas was extremely high. He recommended that the industry, together with the Department of Mining, immediately take steps to assess existing dust control measures and disposal methods. However, HHRP told the TRC that the mining companies had refused to sanction the publication of Webster’s finding unless the cancer hazard was "passed off" as tuberculosis. According to HHRP: "The report was therefore not published or made available outside the unit, except to the groups that had been directly involved in the survey." The Business Day newspaper reported that this was not the first or last time that scientific findings unfavourable to asbestos companies had been suppressed. In the 1970s the national research institute for occupational diseases of the Medical Research Council of South Africa carried out research on the risks of asbestos-related diseases in workers in asbestos mines. The findings showed that the risk of death through asbestosis or cancer of the lungs and stomach was increased in blue asbestos mining areas. The findings were to have been presented to a conference of the New York Academy of Sciences in June 1978. However, the two researchers were instructed to withdraw their paper, apparently on the insistence of asbestos mining companies in the Northern Cape. The study was later reworked and released in 1986.

Still with the TRC hearings into the medical profession, Commissioner Dr Wendy Orr told the SAPA news agency on June 18 that the commission would seek further information on three special psychological projects conducted by the defence force between 1975 and 1990. Orr said the South African Medical Service (SAMS) has referred to the projects in a private briefing with commissioners, but had not provided sufficient detail. SAMS also said in a submission to the TRC that the projects had national strategic and security implications and could not be discussed in detail in public. Among the projects was one in conjunction with the University of Stellenbosch to study subliminal perception technology and its possible application against the security forces and South African’s at large.

TELECOMMUNICATIONS ACCESS: The first of 1 000 schools nationwide to be given free access to the Internet was hooked up this week. The A B Phokompe High School in Randfontein in Gauteng Province became the launch school for the "Internet to 1 000 Schools" project by the parastatal, Telkom. The company has a monopoly over telecommunication services in South Africa, but recently lost a bid to include Internet service provision in this monopoly. The project by Telkom will involve it supplying the telecommunications infrastructure, PC hardware, software and a free subscription to Internet services for a year. The aim will be to connect at least 100 schools in all nine provinces and provide training and support for teachers. The project will be linked to SchoolNet ZA, a forum that will bring together provincial education departments, members of the Information Technology industry and nongovernmental organisations. SchoolNet ZA will aim to eventually connect all schools in South Africa to the Internet.

INDEPENDENT BROADCASTING: The Independent Broadcasting Authority (IBA) said on June 19 that it was facing a severe cash crisis that might prevent it from carrying out core functions such as regulating and licencing community and private radio stations. The crisis might also lead to a delay in the licensing of a private television channel later this year. An IBA spokesperson said austerity measures had been implemented, but the authority would also ask the communications ministry for "an additional monthly allocation". Earlier this week, the parliamentary committee on communication finalised its shortlisted of new councillors for the IBA, following the resignation of five councillors last month in the wake of a report showing evidence of serious financial irregularities in workings of the authority. The shortlist included two councillors who had resigned along with the three others in May, but who were not implicated in any financial irregularities. The shortlist is expected to be approved by President Nelson Mandela before the end of the month.