(FXI/IFEX) – The following is an FXI statement: FXI expresses concerns over state of media freedom in the World as well as in South Africa As South Africa celebrates its first decade of democracy, and while the international community observes another World Press Freedom Day, FXI has urged the international community to take note of […]
(FXI/IFEX) – The following is an FXI statement:
FXI expresses concerns over state of media freedom in the World as well as in South Africa
As South Africa celebrates its first decade of democracy, and while the international community observes another World Press Freedom Day, FXI has urged the international community to take note of the many violations against media freedom that have taken and continue to take place around the globe.
In a press statement, FXI pointed out that, for instance, the international journalists’ protection group ‘Reporters Without Borders’ has stated that since the United States-led war in Iraq began in March 2003, five journalists have been killed and two have disappeared without trace. Both the United States and United Kingdom governments have refused to accept responsibility for the death and disappearance of these journalists, concluding instead, after hasty investigations, that the soldiers who caused the death of at least four of them acted in “self-defense [and] according to the rules.”
FXI also stated that in countries such as Burma, the military junta has completely stifled operations of the independent media while Israel systematically targets and attacks Palestinian media houses, which it deems radical or supportive of the Palestinian struggle for liberation. Closer to South Africa, the government of President Robert Mugabe in Zimbabwe has passed and aggressively uses draconian laws such as the repressive Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act to shut down the independent press, curtail the work of critical journalists and deport or bar foreign correspondents from the country.
In regards to South Africa, FXI observed that, whereas the country continues to nurture a relatively healthy media in a continent synonymous with disregard, rather than respect, for a free, vibrant and diversified media, the organisation has noted a number of concerns in the last few years that it highlighted in this statement. It stated that of particular concern is the fact that a number of restrictive laws used extensively by the apartheid regime to curtail media freedom still appear in the country’s statute books. Laws such as the Protection of Information Act and the Armaments Development and Production Act have been invoked at certain points to bar media from accessing or publishing information of a public interest nature.
Similarly, FXI stated that the state has regularly taken recourse to apartheid era laws to subpoena journalists in an attempt to compel them to testify or reveal their sources of information in court. One such example relates to the Hefer Commission of Inquiry held between October and December 2003, which tried to force journalists to testify around allegations that the National Director of Public Prosecutions was an apartheid spy. The state has also attempted to introduce legislation that would potentially affect the right and ability of media to operate freely in South Africa, as it did with the Anti-Terrorism Bill which has since been shelved due to pressure from civil society.
Journalists have also been harassed, physically assaulted and even threatened with death on account of their work. In February 2004, Mpumi Phaswa, a journalist working with the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC) was attacked by relatives of a mastermind behind a syndicate suspected of selling paroles to inmates in Barberton. In April, a police officer threatened to beat Frans van Der Merwe, a journalist working for the Limpopo Mirror and the Zoutsopansberger newspapers, while he was covering a public demonstration in Makhado, Limpopo Province.
Courts have also been quick to issue interdicts or slap gagging orders against the media, as happened in the Pretoria High Court in November 2003, when the court ordered the Mail and Guardian not to publish information relating to corruption allegations against Polokwane businessman Walter Senoko.
In regards to the national broadcaster – the SABC – FXI noted with concern that certain of its activities increasingly betray aspects of self-censorship or a pandering to state interests. For instance in September 2003, an internal communication was sent by SABC’s head of public service radio, Judy Nwokedi, forbidding discussion of political issues “outside of designated current affairs programmes”. The broadcaster was rightly accused of interfering with the programme content of typical live discussions and phone-in programmes such as ‘the Vuyo Mbuli Show’ and the Sunday afternoon panel discussion programme, ‘The Editors’.
Around the same time, the Durban-based public broadcasting service radio station Ukhozi FM pulled a political discussion programme off-air, allegedly because the government had complained that the programme was favouring the Inkatha Freedom Party. In January 2004, SABC made a live broadcast of the ANC’s election manifesto launch in Pietermaritzburg and, though senior management of the station tried to defend this decision against a barrage of criticism from many quarters, no similar privilege was accorded other political groups.
Currently, the National Parliament is again attempting to evict members of the Parliamentary Press Gallery Association (PGA) from their offices in spite of an agreement entered into between the PGA, Parliament and press from local and international media freedom lobby groups not to proceed with the action.
FXI has also identified worrying developments through its research within the community radio sector where a number of stations have reported subtle intimidation, blackmail and attempts to control them by some members of the ruling party. Often, these attempts come in the form of members of the ruling party making statements to the effect that the ruling party members were responsible for the formation of these stations and that these stations are no longer benefiting the party as they should.
FXI stated that this undoubtedly raises concerns about other measures that the ruling party may wield to muzzle community radio stations through direct manipulation of conditions under which these stations receive support from different government departments in the form of advertising and programme sponsorship.
It also stated that all these incidents create room for concern that South Africa is witnessing more rather than less censorious activities against the media as the country moves into its second decade of democracy. With these concerns in mind, FXI strongly urged state and non-state institutions as well as individuals to refrain from interfering with the country’s media and to respect its activities as it carries out its constitutional mandate of informing, educating and entertaining the public.
