INDEPENDENT BROADCASTING - The Johannesburg-based Muslim community radio station, Radio Islam, on November 17 lost a High Court bid to prevent the Broadcasting Monitoring and Complaints Commission (BMCC) from hearing a complaint into its licence conditions. The complaint, lodged by the Muslim organisation YIELD, concerned the station’s policy of not allowing women on air. Radio Islam maintained that this policy was in accordance with Islamic religious beliefs about the role of women, but YIELD contended that the policy was both in violation of its licence conditions and the right to equality of women in the community. Radio Islam, in its High Court bid which it brought on November 12, said the BMCC was not qualified to hear the complaint and adjudicate on the matter. At the hearing held subsequent to the failed High Court bid, Radio Islam conceded that it had discriminated against women, but told the BMCC that it would rather close down than allow women on air. In a representation to the Independent Broadcasting Authority’s (IBA) Council on November 27, the Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI)  called on the council to ensure a judgement that would not threaten the future existence of the station, or impose an editorial policy on the licence holders that would be out of sink with their religious acceptabilities.

JOURNALISTS - Journalists covering the bail hearing of poet and musician, Mzwakhe Mbuli, on November 14 came in for a tongue lashing from pop diva Brenda Fassie when she accused them of "wanting to make money out of Mzwakhe". Mbuli, known as the "People’s Poet" because of his stirring verses against the Apartheid regime, was arrested three weeks ago in connection with a bank robbery in Pretoria. His arrest and trial has been widely reported in the media. Fassie reportedly approached a group of white journalists in the front row of the court benches and forced her way between them. When they objected, she apparently verbally abused and threatened to slap whom she called "racist" reporters. "We blacks are here to support Mbuli. You [white journalists] only want to make money out of a black man," she said. "Why don’t you write about [Afrikaans singer] Ge Korsten?" she added.

INTERNET ACCESS - The telecommunications parastatal, Telkom, is reportedly again threatening to withhold extra bandwidth for private Internet service providers despite a ruling last month by the South African Telecommunications Authority (SATRA) that Telkom did not have a monopoly over Internet service provision. The "Business Day" newspaper reports that Telkom’s defiant stand is hinging on the parastatal’s confidence that SATRA’s decision will be overturned on appeal. Earlier this month Telkom filed an urgent application in the Pretoria High Court to set aside SATRA’s ruling. Telkom is arguing that SATRA did not have the jurisdiction to make the pronouncement it did, that there were procedural irregularities and that the judgement was irregular in that the regulator’s councillors did not properly apply their minds to the submissions they received on the matter. The "Business Day" says Telkom will not supply bandwidth to anyone planning to resell it - effectively ruling out service providers which sell bandwidth to other service providers. The parastatal will also not supply extra bandwidth to anyone who does not hold a value-added network licence. However, no service currently holds such a licence, the requirement of which was part of SATRA’s ruling, because of the protracted controversy.

PUBLIC BROADCASTING - The National Party (NP) on November 23 accused SABC-Television News of politically biased reporting, saying the African National Congress (ANC) was enjoying 90% of political coverage while it and the Democratic Party (DP) accounted for only 9.3%. The NP said it had called for a top level meeting with the SABC management to discuss the issue. Party spokesman Daryl Swanepoel said statistics compiled by an independent monitoring company commissioned by the NP confirmed that opposition political parties "are being prejudiced to the extent that the SABC can quite rightly now be renamed the Voice of the ANC". He said not only was the SABC in breach of contract terms of the mandate given, it was not acting in the spirit of promoting multi-party democracy. He said the electorate was being denied a state-funded opportunity to make decisions and choices. Swanepoel added that standard journalistic practice called for the media to portray the policies and alternatives of the opposition parties and act as a watchdog. Earlier, Posts, Telecommunications and Broadcasting Minister Jay Naidoo on November 21 brushed aside allegations of attempting party political control of the airwaves, saying government had not choice but to "intervene to ensure transformation" that would be reflective of the country’s needs. Naidoo was speaking at a conference in Durban organised by the Department of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology and dealing with local content.

DEFAMATION- The President of the African National Congress (ANC) Women’s League, Winnie Madikizela-Mandela, on November 24, laid a charge of crimen injuria against one of the leading accusers at her special hearing before the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), Katiza Cebekhulu. Madikizela-Mandela said in her statement to police in Johannesburg that Cebekhulu had defamed her in a documentary screened on SABC television in September this year. The documentary, which was made abroad, focused on the book, "Katiza’s Journey", in which Cebekhulu recounts various allegations against Madikizela-Mandela, including that of murder.  Cebekhulu, who arrived in the country specially to testify at the TRC this week, was granted immunity from arrest. However, he flew out of the country with haste on November 25, apparently out of fear that the charges laid by Madikizela-Mandela would be used as a pretext to prevent him from leaving. Cebekhulu is in self-imposed exile in Britain.

PUBLIC BROADCASTING - The South African Broadcasting Authority (SABC) on November 16 denied reports that its chief executive, Zwelakhe Sisulu, was within the next three to six months. The report was carried in the "Mail & Guardian" newspaper. SABC spokesman, Enoch Sithole, said Sisulu would be staying on for at least another year. Sithole added that the SABC would wee out the "senior SABC insiders" who were the newspapers sources for the report.

DEFAMATION - The "City Press" newspaper has won a R100 000 defamation suite brought against it by the founder, owner and principle of a private school at Orange Farm, an impoverished area south of Johannesburg. The newspaper reported on November 16 that the claim by Steven Sangweni of the Matiwane Combined School was dismissed with costs by the Johannesburg Regional Court. Sangweni brought the defamation suite following several articles in the "City Press" newspaper exposing serious mismanagement at several private schools. The articles found that despite the substantial state subsidies granted to the schools, including Matiwane, there had been no improvements in the conditions at the schools. The articles reported among others that teachers’ salaries were R500 a month, the classrooms were overcrowded, children were sharing desks and chairs, children sat on floors, teachers did not have chalk, textbooks were not available and there were no sporting facilities, laboratories, libraries, or playgrounds. The magistrate found that Sangweni had been evasive and incompetent, and that he had indeed mismanaged state subsidies and school fees. The magistrate also found that the education department was negligent, as no inspections were done by the department and a subsidy was granted without all the necessary source documents available to support financial reports submitted for the subsidy. The magistrate ruled that the articles in "City Press" were basically true and in the public interest.

OPEN PROCEEDINGS - The media house, Times Media Limited, along with two journalists on November 25 presented their arguments to the Pretoria High Court for an urgent court order to set aside a ruling in the Regional Magistrate’s Court declaring that parts of the bail hearing of former government chemical and biological warfare expert Wouter Basson be heard in camera. The magistrate’s ruling was handed down on October 28 following Basson’s arrest on charges of fraud and theft involving R30 million and relating specifically to his tenure as head of a top secret military project named "Project Coast". The magistrate ruled that all evidence referring to this project would be held in camera. The application in the High Court is being opposed by the Minister of Defence and the Minister of Foreign Affairs on the grounds that it is in the interests of the security of the State, the administration of justice and of good order that the information, which had been classified top secret, should not be made public. Counsel for the applicants said it was of burning interest to the public to know what was happening behind the closed doors. The counsel argued that the in-camera ruling was contrary to the constitution’s protection of freedom of expression, and more particularly, the freedom of the press and other media, as well as the freedom to receive and impart information. They said the press played a pivotal role in the process of democracy, acting as a fundamental check in the process of checks and balances in the maintenance of democracy. They argued further that a considerable amount of information concern Basson’s role and activities in Project Coast and related matters was already and matter of public record, and had been reported extensively. Reporters not only had the right to report there on, but were also duty bound to do so in furtherance of the constitutional values of human dignity, the advancement of human rights and freedoms, supremacy of the constitution and the rule of law aimed at a democratic government, to ensure accountability, responsiveness and openness, the counsel added. The application continues.

OPEN PROCEEDINGS - The brother of the late Princess Diana, Earl Charles Spencer, on November 25 gave notice of his intention to apply for an urgent interdict in the Cape Town High Court restraining two newspapers from publishing further particulars of the divorce action between himself and his estranged wife, Victoria. The divorce action is being heard in the Cape Town High Court. Lawyers acting for Spencer said they would bring the action against Independent Newspaper, which publishes the "Cape Times"; Ryland Fisher, editor of the "Cape Times"; and  Moegsien Williams, editor of the Cape Argus. In terms of the South African Divorce Act, in-progress divorce proceedings are regarded as private, preventing the media from reporting on them. Both the "Cape Times" and "Cape Argus" newspapers have so far reported extensively on the case. However, on November 27, Spencer withdrew his application for an interdict following intense negotiations between his lawyers and those of the newspapers.

PARLIAMENTARY PRIVILEGE - Parliament’s National Assembly on November 25 voted to suspend Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) MP Patricia de Lille following her allegation that several senior African National Congress (ANC) members were apartheid spies. De Lille immediately announced that she would apply to the High Court for an interdict against her 15-day suspension as well as challenge the decision in the Constitutional Court. In addition to the suspension, De Lille was directed to apologise to the House and the members she named, by means of the a letter addressed to the Speaker. The decision against De Lille followed an inquiry by a special parliamentary committee. In an urgent representation to the Speaker on November 6, the Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) strongly protested the manner in which the special committee was dealing with the issue. Describing parliamentary privilege as a crucial aspect of democracy, the FXI said it felt De Lille "cannot and should not be hauled before a special committee merely for using her parliamentary privilege. Rather, we feel the statements she made should be the subject of an investigation and on the basis of such an investigation, which should involve a judgement on whether the statements were true or false, action should be taken against De Lille". The FXI added that the manner in which the issue was being dealt was a serious violation of the right to MPs to freedom of expression as it could have a chilling effect on free speech in Parliament. "The setting up of a special committee with the intention of taking action against an MP because of statements made in parliament, and in the absence of any investigation into the validity of the statements, could have the effect of discouraging other MPs from exposing or raising allegations tin Parliament out of fear of being hauled before a special committee," the statement said.

DEFAMATION - The Liberian businessman at the centre of scandal in South Africa’s Central Energy Fund, Emmanuel Shaw II, this week backed down from a second attempt to lodge an interdict against the "Mail & Guardian" newspaper preventing it from publishing articles about him. The M&G on November 26 received a letter from Shaw’s lawyers indicating that they were aware that the M&G was to publish articles on Shaw in its latest edition. The letter also said that the newspaper had violated Shaw’s right to privacy by interviewing several politicians and businessman about him. The letter asked for an undertaking from the newspaper not to publish the articles in the latest edition and or forward the articles to Shaw for approval before publication. Failing which, he would apply for an urgent interdict restraining them. The newspaper refused to give the undertaking, while Shaw declined to proceed with the urgent interdict. Last week, on November 20, the M&G defeated an attempt by Show to block the publication of further revelations about his activities. He claimed that articles which appeared in two previous issues had been defamatory. In rejection Shaw’s application, the court said that publication of a third article and editorial would not add substantially to the damage that Shaw claimed he had suffered.

DEFAMATION - The "Mail & Guardian" newspaper confirmed this week that it had received a lawyer’s letter on behalf of the Premier of the Mpumalanga province, Mathews Phosa, claiming R3-million in damages for an article which appeared in the newspaper on October 31. A similar letter was sent to journalist Justine Arenstein, who wrote the article, on November 20. The letter said the article was "not true and not in the public interest and or did not form part of a fair comment on facts that are true and in the public interest." The article quoted unnamed members of the African National Congress’s provincial executive committee confirming that the body had unanimously agreed to withdraw the nomination of Phosa for the position of ANC deputy president. The party said earlier that it would take action against Arenstein in a bid to force him to reveal the sources of the article.

ENDS