Media tribunal ‘urgent’

ANC policy conference delegates have called for parliament to urgently implement a proposal calling for the establishment of a media appeals tribunal and regulatory body for print media.

This is according to ANC Chief Whip Jackson Mthembu‚ who is also head of the ANC’s sub-committee on communications‚ following discussions on the media and the communications industry at the party’s National Policy Conference in Johannesburg.

Briefing journalists‚ Mthembu said the print media was a “powerful tool that could effect even a regime change” and it had to be held accountable as to how it conducted its affairs.

The resolution was first adopted at the ANC’s national conference in Mangaung in 2012 but the state has stalled its implementation in the face of objections from leading media houses, who decried it as a threat to press freedom.

Mthembu said policy conference delegates urged parliament to urgently conduct an inquiry on the best ways to regulate and hold the print media accountable.

“What the commission has said is that the inquiry must happen now‚” said Mthembu. “We have not changed‚ we will put our view on how print media should be regulated.”

Mthembu said conference delegates argued that if parliament had powers to appoint leaders of constitutional structures such as the public protector and electoral commission‚ it should also extend that authority to the print media.

He said the ANC remained committed to freedom of the media and this move should not been seen as attack on the media.

He said the ANC policy conference had also proposed that the government communications agency GCIS should be returned to the political management of the Presidency to improve on how the government communicated with citizens.

The conference has also requested that government spokesmen should also jack up their performance in communicating and interacting with the media. — TMG