Editor-at-large threatened at home
‘Cowardly act by BLF to silence journalists’
The South African National Editors Forum (Sanef) has strongly condemned the attacks on two senior Tiso Black Star media group journalists by the Black First Land First (BLF) movement.
Group editor-at-large Peter Bruce and Business Day editor Tim Cohen were assaulted yesterday by the Gupta-linked BLF movement‚ which was unhappy about a column that appeared in Business Day.
BLF protesters‚ who threatened Bruce at his home in Johannesburg‚ demanded that he start writing about the “wrongdoing” of “white monopoly capital” and not depict the black race as people associated with corruption.
Cohen‚ the editor of the newspaper‚ was accosted on his arrival at Bruce’s home shortly after hearing of the protest.
“Sanef condemns unreservedly the intimidation and threats against journalist Peter Bruce [and Tim Cohen]. Media freedom is protected by the constitution …,” said Sanef director Chris Kabwato. “We also condemn the invasion of Mr Bruce’s personal life as part of a cowardly act to silence him. We encourage Mr Bruce to report the perpetrators to the police. Journalism is not a crime. State capture is.”
BLF treasurer Thandiswa Yaphi threw in a cheap shot at Cohen’s chin.
Tiso Blackstar also expressed its outrage against the attack on the journalists.
“We are appalled at the attempted intimidation of Peter Bruce. It is an outright threat to journalism that we shouldn’t laugh off as a handful of lunatics making noise but rather part of a concerted campaign to intimidate that should be condemned in the strongest possible terms by anyone who supports the freedom of the press‚” Tiso Blackstar said in a statement. “As a media company in the forefront of exposing state capture and‚ most recently‚ the revelations from Gupta e-mails leak‚ we will not be bowed by these bullying tactics.”
A group of about 20 BLF members had gathered outside Bruce’s home‚ holding placards. They wrote “land or death” on his garage roller door and hurled insults at him. They also told him to pack his bags and go back to Europe‚ saying they wanted to occupy his home‚ which they claimed has been built on stolen land.
Bruce said he had no doubt that the protest could be linked to his opinion piece in Business Day‚ in which he wrote that he was targeted by the Gupta family for writing articles about them.
“He is selective when he writes his opinion piece. He does not write what is truthful‚ factual and he doesn’t investigate. He just writes what in his racist mind and we don’t accept that as black people and the BFLF movement‚” said Yaphi. –
[Bruce] is selective when he writes his opinion piece. He is not truthful Thandiswa Yaphi BLF TREASURER