The undertaking by Justice Minister Jeff Radebe, in his address to the SA National Editors’ Forum in Johannesburg on Saturday night, that the government would not treat the media in the way it was done during the apartheid years is unfortunately of little, or no comfort.
The apartheid regime could be lethal to those who tried to break out of the censorship laager created by a government intent on ensuring the citizens of South Africa remained steadfast in their acceptance of minority rule. In this regard the views from within and outside the country — which did not coincide with that goal — were ruthlessly dealt with. Had the internet been around one wonders how long this disgraceful system could have lasted.
The minister, in suggesting that this government won’t be as bad as them, is basically saying that the Vietnam War was OK because next to World War II, the casualties were negligible.
So too, is his undertaking that any law must be in conformity with the Constitution.
The South African Constitution provides at Sections 15 and 16 for “Freedom of religion, belief and opinion” and “Freedom of expression”. These are tempered by, inter alia, Section 16 itself which provides that the freedoms contained in that section are not unlimited and sets out the exceptions.
Accordingly the government need only have regard to the Constitution itself, case law and the existing Criminal Procedures Act to uphold standards consistent with a free society.
In a true constitutional democracy one of, if not the main protections citizens enjoy, is the right to media freedom. Through knowledge gained via the media they are able to guard against corruption, abuse of power and any other matter or thing that threatens them as they go about their daily tasks.
If this is removed, as it was during apartheid, then, for example, whites who adore Nelson Mandela are led to believe that he is a terrorist who would do to them what the Nazis did to the Jews if given the chance. Or that the ANC — in anybody’s terms a moderate party — are a bloodthirsty left-wing radical group who would order the whites slaughtered the day they took power. When I used to tell people in the 1980s that the ANC were moderates they nearly fell off their chairs.
In the case of the factional war between President Jacob Zuma and former president Thabo Mbeki, I always said then, as I do now, that if Mbeki was of a mind to do so he could have closed down the mass media — as President Robert Mugabe did — and then employed the NIA, police and even the military to take out Zuma, Julius Malema and anyone else who opposed him.
How soon those in the Zuma faction forget that when the press is censored, as it was during apartheid, the government can literally get away with murder. So much so that they can trap an entire black population behind walls, shoot those who question their authority and block out the opinion of an entire outside world. Taking that as your starting point, how much easier would it have been to get rid of just the leadership of the Zuma faction?
Accordingly, by suggesting that a media tribunal be appointed to oversee what is the public’s main safeguard against government abuse, the ANC are threatening the most valuable protection people enjoy — information. Armed with that, people can respond to danger and ask questions of their government. Deprived of it they are sitting ducks.
How, for example, would people take the government to task about the arms deal billions if they never knew about it?
South Africans from all parties must unite on this issue and demand that media freedom be preserved and remain totally independent of any government interference.
That is particularly aimed at the ANC.
Lest the party forget, during the years of Mbeki there appeared to be a discernible divide between the ANC and the government. In the hands of someone lusting for power at all costs, the government could effectively have blown the party away.
Never mind forming a party like Cope, there could easily have been a Mugabe-like dictatorship wherein those close to the top control government, army, police intelligence and all the major resources while blacking out the media.
As the world has seen, once media censorship is entrenched it is almost impossible to get rid of it without a civil war or major bloodshed as outside forces intervene.
The party most in danger from that is the ANC and nobody else.
Of course, the fact that the justice minister is suggesting that the media would have to reveal their sources is all the proof you’ll ever need of how vital this independence is to the wellbeing of South Africa.
Who would ever come forward after being told that those in power will know that you are the one who blew the whistle?
Nobody — you might just as well throw yourself under a bus.
In the words of the very wise and astute professor Pierre de Vos: “What the ANC and the government it leads actually needs is not a media appeals tribunal, but a media strategy to woo the non-state media to its side by talking the language of ordinary people and citizens. Instead of talking that faux revolutionary drivel and blaming the Dark Lord Sauron, anti-transformation forces, the CIA or the Devil himself for their bad record on service delivery and for the bad publicity on corruption and the like, the ANC needs to face up to the facts and take quick and decisive action to correct mistakes to try and convince the real media that it really, really cares and is doing its best to stamp out corruption and to improve service delivery.”
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