this gets to me....

This trend is enough to make a journalist gag

Fred Khumalo	Published:Oct 18, 2008

i had to inclued this entire article. i think what the government is trying to do regarding the freedom of the media is, simply put, wrong.
people of my country(yes, i am white, but if you are even THINKING of telling me that i am no South African due to my skin colour, well then i have something to say to you!) fought and died to ensure that our beautiful land could see the light of democracy.

will someone PLEASE explain to me how the behaviour of the ANC reflects what they fought so hard to attain.

One has to conclude that the ANC wants a government tribunal that will act as Big Brother, vetting and passing judgment on media conduct

Thirty-one years ago this week, the apartheid government banned 19 black organisations and shut down several newspapers, including The World.

The commemoration of this event always reminds those of us in the media — and ordinary South Africans who respect the role of media in society — of how far we have come as a society. It encourages us to savour and relish the freedoms that we now enjoy under a democratic dispensation.

But then again, the commemoration of this event brings into sharp relief the reality that freedom of the press is still a contested terrain, even under a democratic dispensation.

ANC spokesman Jessie Duarte’s remark about press freedom this week was unpalatable in that it questioned not only the notion of press freedom as we have come to know it, but it even questioned the role of the ombudsman.

“Press freedom is not only for media owners, but for all citizens. If you offend us on page one, make sure you apologise on page one, not ambiguously on page 10,” she said.

Indeed, it is true that with freedom, comes responsibility. Media practitioners do need to exercise their freedom to publish with due consideration for ordinary citizens’ right to privacy and dignity. At the same time, the South African public deserves the right to information.

Duarte sounded ominous when she said the ombudsman was in the habit of passing judgments in favour of the media. The insinuation is that the office of the ombudsman should be scrapped.

In fact, she said unequivocally that she (and I assume she was speaking on behalf of the ANC) was not comfortable with the current situation in which the media is self-regulatory.

Logically, therefore, one has to conclude that the ANC wants a government tribunal — as expressed by the ruling party at Polokwane — that will act as Big Brother, vetting and passing judgment on media conduct.

This is worrisome. It will mark the beginning of a gradual erosion of the media’s right to inform and alert the citizenry of wrongdoing wherever it manifests .

What is further remarkable is that Duarte’s comments came in the wake of the Film and Publications Act, which has been channelled through to the national assembly in the face of protestations from media practitioners, who see it as part of a growing arsenal that will assault media freedom.

The bill, which has yet to be signed by the president, is meant to clamp down on child pornography. That is fine. Except that it is so broad and expansive that, if passed, it will require media organisations to submit to a classification committee all stories on rape, sexual assault, incitement to violence and war.

Not only would this be impractical, it will induce self-censorship in journalists and media organisations in general.

It is indeed reminiscent of the ’80s when, during the state of emergency, media organisations had to submit stories on violence to the then department of information for approval.

This had an insidious and debilitating effect on our journalism.

Stories based on eyewitness accounts by journalists were suppressed at the whim of some official sitting in the ministry , arbitrarily deciding what the South African public deserved to know.

Against this background, Duarte’s expressed opinion about how the media should be governed is a veiled threat against media freedom. Her opinion lays the foundation for a gradual, systematic trammelling of freedom of the press.

A healthy and robust media environment is a nation speaking to itself.

But once you interfere with the media’s voice, you are effectively curtailing a necessary conversation between various sectors of our society. You are muzzling us.

And that is the antithesis of the democratic values that lie at the heart of the nation we are busy building.

South Africans who value these values and freedoms must stand up now and fight — before it’s too late.