Daily Dispatch
ANC takes aim at key freedom
AS rage over the Cabinet purge that saw the sacking of former finance minister Pravin Gordhan and other solidly performing ministers intensifies, so will President Jacob Zuma’s need to contain criticism, stymie opposition and quash growing dissent.
This may sound extreme, but when a democratically elected government ceases to act in the interest of its citizens, legitimate avenues of staying in government, such as elections, become less viable. It must look for other ways of staying in power. Creating a less critical and more cooperative media is just one of them.
The ANC clearly no longer acts in the interest of its citizens. With the axing of Gordhan and his deputy Mcebisi Jonas, the way is open for Zuma’s business cronies to capture what remains of our state enterprises and resources and push through the calamitous nuclear deal.
Fury has lit up the social media and the most vigorous criticism of the ANC government to date is evident across all digital, print and other media platforms.
The ANC’s chief whip Jackson Mthembu on Sunday took aim at the media, calling directly for external media regulation because, he said, the media tended to highlight the failings rather than the successes of the ANC and government.
His utterances must be seen in the context of the ANC’s discussion document on communications which is to be discussed at the ANC policy conference in June. It’s a frightening document with the main stated aim being to reposition the ANC to effectively participate in what it terms the battle of ideas.
The “hostile media” is identified as a “site of struggle” with dominant media houses entrenching editorial positions that are adversarial to the government and the ANC.
To cut through the verbiage: the ANC would like to silence criticism of itself and the government and the only way to do so is through external media regulation.
The document suggests parliament should inquire into media accountability mechanisms and it also resuscitates the idea of a media appeals tribunal and stricter defamation laws.
Most ominously, it makes suggestions that encroach, not only on press freedom but academic freedom. It seems also to suggest imposing racial quotas for journalism lecturers.
In South Africa, we currently have a system of independent, co-regulatory mechanisms involving the press council, a press ombud and an appeal panel set up by print and online media organisations themselves.
The ANC alleges that this has failed. But this is not true. The system may be far from perfect but self-regulation has proved to be the best form of regulation worldwide if freedom of expression is even a consideration.
There have been numerous studies drawing a direct correlation between self-regulation and increased levels of freedom of expression. Of the countries rated most highly by Reporters without Borders as enjoying a free press, all practice media self-regulation or no regulation at all.
The ANC and the executive needs to realise the purpose of media regulation is not punitive or coercive. It is not to ensure that the ANC gets kinder coverage – which appears to be the point of their policy document.
The ultimate goal of media regulation is to protect and deepen our fundamental right to freedom of expression. Once placed in the hands of a state with the sort of selfish objectives spelt out in the ANC policy document, freedom of expression will be reduced to a footnote in the history of our brief democratic experiment.