Can you be trusted, ICC?
Freedom of speech is the freedom to criticise and oppose. And if you take that away, you erode the ability to have open, honest conversations about democracy. Growing up as white South Africans in the 1970s, my parents were oblivious to the atrocities happening under apartheid because of laws designed to silence anyone from talking about it.
As a result, I spent the first few years of my journalism career – in a South Africa 16 years into its democracy – untangling what I had heard about my country’s history from what was true.
As an adult, I saw how governmental communication policies enabled corruption and media intimidation, leading to a complete breakdown of trust between the state and its people.
So news that councillors in progressive New Zealand voted in favour of essentially gagging themselves this week left me shaking my head.
The official line is that Invercargill City councillors may only raise council issues and activities when speaking to the media, ‘‘rather than the actions or decisions of other elected members or staff’’. This seems a tad Orwellian from a council that’s already been rapped over the knuckles by the Ombudsman this year for its lack of transparency in how it handles Official Information Act requests. In other words, we can’t rely on council administration processes to expose irregularities.
And now we can’t really rely on councillors to speak out either.
City council project director Peter Thompson has said the new media protocol is not binding or linked to penalties, so bigger offences from councillors will still be up for scrutiny.
But it’s the possibility of what could happen in the interim that’s concerning.
If you start curtailing freedom of speech, no matter how small via guidelines, it’s a short drop to curtailing freedom of the press.
And the danger is getting to the point of full-blown ‘‘state capture’’ that has happened back home. The hyperbolic term has become a catch-all for the situation that played out in South Africa where politicians in the highest echelons of government found themselves in the pockets of private businessmen.
The matter is before a commission of inquiry, although former president Jacob Zuma is refusing to testify.
South African journalists are fighting hard to retain press freedom. But in a country that’s been preconditioned to keep secrets and throw its whistleblowers under the bus, there are limits to the information they can report on.
And it all started with elected officials who chose to stay silent.
We can’t rely on council administration processes to expose irregularities.