SA press freedom threatened by political forces
THE MAD ranting of the Black First Land First amounting to harassment of journalists doing their work should not come as a surprise. Quite frankly, it seems to me that freedom of the press is seen as a right that politicians can hand over and take away from journalists whenever they see fit.
A few incidents over the past two decades of our freedom show that we all need to go back to school to learn what this freedom actually means. This conduct started with the founder of our democracy and was carried forth by all his successors to date and, frankly, we have not gotten it right. In this conduct even opposition parties have joined in from time to time.
Nelson Mandela attempted to get black editors to report on activities of his administration in a favourable way and had some heated exchanges with the media as a result.
By calling on black journalists to report as sheep, he demonstrated a deep misunderstanding that while black journalists may share political perspective with the ANC, especially ahead of the 1994 elections, they owed the ANC nothing and were obliged to report the truth without fear, favour or prejudice. Mandela’s belief that the fourth estate should join in nation building made him forget what the constitution that he signed into law in 1996 said about the freedom of the press.
Thabo Mbeki’s biggest weakness was to see journalists as intellectually inferior beings who “don’t get it”. And while this was never expressed explicitly, it was felt by journalists who dared challenge him. Despite that as head of state he could be published any time, he reckoned that the only way that the ANC could put its view across was for the party to have its own newspaper where its perspective would not be edited by these intellectual underlings.
He launched one with a key feature being his own “Letter from the President”, meant to put across an unmediated perspective. This project did not outlive his presidency.
While there is space for unmediated communications, the launch of this newsletter showed a certain level of intolerance towards media freedom to express how they felt about his administration.
Essop Pahad, one of Mbeki’s right hand men, who ironically is now editor of a journal called, The Thinker, was the worst enforcer of deeds that carried this terrible understanding of what press freedom means and was the first to think up an advertising ban against newspapers that were seen to be rude to the government.
This mad idea was implemented in certain parts of government against the likes of the Mail & Guardian. I’m glad it was generally ignored in large parts of government but sadly it’s rearing its ugly head again, this time led by Arts and Culture Minister Nathi Mthethwa.
The Zuma administration is particularly acute in its ignorance of what press freedom means and is crude about it. Legislation that sought to intimidate journalists has been pursued since Zuma came on to the scene. The so called Secrecy Bill tops the list as the scariest of the lot. The envisaged media appeals tribunal was the make of cowards who have failed to create a positive reputation for the ANC and are left with exploring intimidation tactics such as this.
The resolution, although passed in 2007, has not seen the light of day largely because the arguments for it are terribly weak and unlikely to stand constitutional muster. Despite a full inquiry conducted by the late Judge Pius Langa indicating the self regulation mechanism can only be strengthened; not discarded or placed under politicians, the Zuma regime seems always determined to go to war with the media.
Part of the strategy was to create propaganda tools such as the government rag called Vuk’Zenzele that has proved to be ineffective, reaching only 30% of its target audience, according to GCIS’ own internal effectiveness report about this tool. As if that was not enough bad news for proper journalism in the new South Africa, enter The New Age and ANN7, representing some of the worst journalism enterprise since 1994 in the name of an alternative narrative.
It is clear that throughout our journey of freedom through the eyes of our democratic governments, we need to remind ourselves of what freedom of the press means. That freedom is protected by the constitution in a very specific manner exactly so that it is not given as a favour by any incumbent government. The forebears learnt from other collapsed states that the first thing to go before freedom itself would be press freedom.
While the context of planting a bad seed is understood as giving rise to demagoguery against the media, it must provide an opportunity to revise our attitude towards this freedom. The police must start by arresting Andile Mngxitama for defying the court interdict that prohibits him from intimidating journalists.
Similarly, action must be taken against Mthethwa for threatening to withdraw government advertising to so called “negative press” – this is equally an assault on media freedom as is the cancellation of subscription of the Cape Times by Helen Zille or even the blacklisting of ANN7 from EFF events by Julius Malema.
It is easy to refer to what the ANC has done against a free press but it looks like it is in good company. We need to refresh our understanding of what it means to have a constitution that protects the fourth estate so jealously.