Media Freedom

By Branko Brkic of Daily Maverick
• 14 December 2019

A fierce debate is currently raging on an important question: should the media pull out of covering the EFF National People’s Assembly, following the ‘banning’ of the journalists from Daily Maverick, Scorpio, amaBhungane and possibly other media outlets?

We, at Daily Maverick, believe that the EFF’s ‘ban’ is unconstitutional and intend to test it in court in the new year.

Make no mistake – the only reason the EFF’s leadership made this decision was because of our groundbreaking reporting – specifically on the VBS scandal.

The fact that the EFF has refused to even give us a clear response to our accreditation application was, we believe, a passive-aggressive tactical move, designed to prevent an urgent court action that Daily Maverick might have decided to pursue.

EFF is mistaken in its action. Not only is the ‘ban’ against the spirit of a new, democratic South Africa, it is also not an enforceable sanction. While many of the EFF’s politics and actions may date back to the 1920s and early 1930s, technology has since moved on. Daily Maverick will, in collaboration with our media colleagues and specialist journalists and writers, still provide the great insight and quality analysis we are known for.

The EFF leadership’s ‘ban’ on media brands achieves nothing but exposes their totalitarian bent.

We also firmly believe that our colleagues from other media houses should cover the EFF congress as vigorously as they can. It is, in our opinion, the media’s role to shine a light on society, including the parts who openly wish us harm and advocate for our demise.

Reporting without fear or favour is not an act of ‘publicising’ anyone – it is our duty. Times may be dark and South Africa looks like a country living on a precipice but defend truth we must.
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On 13 December 2019, the South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) calls for the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) to include a diversity of journalists at its elective conference opening today. SANEF has learnt that the EFF has denied access to journalists from Daily Maverick, Scorpio, amaBhungane, Rapport and Caxton publications, among several media outlets.

We believe this decision is unconstitutional.

SANEF understands that journalists from these publications applied in time. In terms of amaBhungane and the Daily Maverick instead of accreditation, they received emails that included two previous press statements issued by the party.
– “EFF is not moved by SANEF and its double standards on so-called investigative journalists” and “EFF notes testimony at the Zondo Commission against a journalist paid by State Security”.

The first statement is particularly instructive as it argues that the EFF has the right to freedom of association. It states, “… we have the right to decide who we associate with, in our events and platforms,” i.e. that the EFF has the right to exclude specific media organisations from their events.

We believe that this move infringes on the right of freedom of expression enshrined in Section 16 of our Constitution. Section 16 states that everyone has the right to freedom of expression, which includes “freedom of the press and other media” and “freedom to receive or impart information or ideas”

The Bill of Rights covers government and public bodies but is also importantly extended to private institutions and parties as mandated by section 8(2).

SANEF believes:
* The EFF’s ban of certain publications is in effect diminishing citizens right to receive information to make informed decisions about politics – including their view of the EFF.
* That the ban was imposed by the EFF to punish specific media organisations for reporting on their alleged corruption and theft i.e. journalists are being excluded for doing their job.
* The EFFs actions signal a warning to other media houses not to report critically and without fear or favour on wrongdoing.
* This ban is thus an act of intimidation.

We believe that while this intimidation will impact negatively on the affected media organisations, it will deprive ordinary citizens of relevant information that could assist them in making informed choices on how to vote. Therefore, the real victims of this ban are the voters and citizens.

As stated in one of our previous statements, the EFF leader Mr Julius Malema is titled an “Honourable Member of Parliament”, and as a member of parliament (MP) he has undertaken, as part of his oath of office, to uphold the Constitution. His calling for this ban of the country’s leading (and award-winning) investigative journalism units and other publications is at odds with the oath he took and with accepted standards of conduct for MPs.

We call on the EFF to allow journalists from Daily Maverick, Scorpio, amaBhungane and Rapport to attend. If this decision to exclude certain media organisations is not reversed, we call on MPs to sanction Mr Malema.

Finally, SANEF is not convinced by the EFF’s argument that the reason it excluded some journalists is due to lack of space at NASREC.

We know that some media houses received several accreditations.

We call on the EFF to provide access to a diversity of journalists, from a range of media outlets, at this critical event.

Note for Editors: The South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) is a non-profit organisation whose members are editors, senior journalists and journalism trainers from all areas of the South African media. We are committed to championing South Africa’s hard-won freedom of expression and promoting quality, ethics and diversity in the South African media. We promote excellence in journalism through fighting for media freedom, writing policy submissions, research, education and training programmes.

For more information please contact:

• Katy Katopodis – Acting SANEF Chairperson, (082) 805-7022
• Moipone Malefane – SANEF Secretary General (082) 772-5861
• Mary Papayya – Acting SANEF Media Freedom Chair (082) 379-4957
• Sbu Ngalwa – SANEF Eastern Cape Convenor (073) 404-1415
• Kate Skinner – SANEF Executive Director (082 926 6404)

The explosion of the multimedia sector is attracting restrictive media laws that have been the bane of print media for many years, warned Jovial Rantao, chairperson of The African Editors Forum.
You can access Jovial Rantao’s speech here

He told members of the forum at the opening of the Freedom of Expression Festival held between 3rd and 4th December 2019 in Maseru Lesotho that due to the new technology developments, some countries have become the enemies of the people and the media. They include countries that were at the forefront of the liberation in this continent.

While the advent of new media and the much-talked-about fourth industrial revolution has brought about significant and exciting changes on the African continent, it has also changed the way the media is consumed and produced.

Rantao said: “Journalists are still being arrested for writing stories that the government do not like. Bloggers and others who use powerful social media face the same fate. Newspapers are often ordered to stop operations if, again, the powers that do not like its content.”

“The story of an African journalist being detained, tortured and held for months, some running into years, is common in Uganda, Sudan, Zambia, Cameroon, Egypt and even in Tanzania.”
“I am saying ‘even’ in Tanzania because when President John Magufuli arrived, everyone thought that he belonged to a new breed of African leaders. The breed that has embraced democracy, good governance with media freedom and independence at the core. However, the repression of the media in Tanzania has shown us otherwise,” he added.

He said that The Africa Editors Forum (TAEF) is as concerned about the conduct of the government of Kenya against the media, as it still is about the situation in Sudan and Burundi. The two countries have proved to be the most dangerous places to be a journalist, he said.

“The problem here is a plethora of laws that are inimical to media freedom. These laws were identified by the world publishers and editors who gathered in Cape Town in 2003 and adopted the Table Mountain Declaration. The declaration, in the main, called for the scrapping of, amongst others, insult laws from statuette books across the continent,” Rantao said.

Also addressing the meeting, Lydia Gachungi, Regional Adviser on Freedom of Expression and Safety of Journalists to UNESCO Liaison Office to AU in Ethiopia, said the governments in this continent as well as ordinary citizens in individual countries needed to be concerned about the attacks on journalists in public and social media platforms.

She said that the promotion of the safety of journalists and combatting impunity for those who attack them were central elements within UNESCO’s support for press freedom on all media platforms. Part of the reason why the UN was so concerned was that 1010 journalists were killed globally in the last 12 years.
“Impunity for these crimes remains a key challenge. Out of the 1010 killings recorded by UNESCO in the last 12 years, only 115 were followed by a judicial procedure that led to the conviction of one or multiple perpetrators. A rise in the percentage of women journalists among those killed in 2017 (14%) marks the continuation of a trend that has become apparent over the last years.”

“Impunity for crimes against the media fuels and perpetuates the cycle of violence, and the resulting self-censorship deprives society of information and further affects press freedom,” she said.
She said digitally mediated attacks were not only on digital infrastructure or Internet connectivity, but they include online-mediated harassment which sought to cause psychological harm. Put together with physical violence and the killings, furthermore these horrid actions were meant to intimidate all journalists in a country, Gachungi said.

The South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) has learnt that both the national and provincial spheres of government have discriminated against several community media journalists in Limpopo on Tuesday 26 November 2019. The journalists were invited on a trip to cover the launch of 16 days of activism, including a visit to the Medupi Power Station and the launch of a new District Development Model in Waterberg aimed at ensuring integrated planning, budgeting and development by all three spheres of government.

Reports to SANEF indicate that community media journalists were left off the bus which was transporting all media. Only a selected group of journalists were invited. The community media were also excluded from a media networking session.

SANEF finds these exclusions worrying, as it has been the norm for government to support community media by way of transport to key events.

Community media lack the resources – financial and otherwise – to get to far-flung areas and other destinations and for government to arbitrarily pull the plug on such support is unfair. This affects the free flow of information particularly to rural communities which are dependent on the community media sector.

SANEF reiterates that all journalists should be invited and be welcome at all public events and that special provisions should be made for community media.

Finally, we note with concern that the exclusion of the community media sector by government reinforces the recent decision by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) to ban the Daily Maverick and the investigative units, Scorpio and amaBhungane from their media events. SANEF calls for transparency and accountability to be prioritised by all state entities including political parties in the National Assembly, the Provincial Legislatures and Local Government.

For more information:

• Katy Katopodis – SANEF Deputy Chairperson – 082 805 7022
• Moipone Malefane – SANEF Secretary-General 082 772 5861
• Dunisani Ntsanwisi – SANEF Community Committee Convenor (073) 981- 8649
• Mary Papayya – SANEF Media Freedom, Acting Chair – 082 379 4957
• Judy Sandison – SANEF Media Freedom Committee 082 571-3334
• Sbu Ngalwa – SANEF Media Freedom Committee 073 404 1415
• Janet Heard – SANEF Western Cape SANEF Convenor, 0780419528
• Kate Skinner – SANEF Executive Director 082 926 6404
• Hopewell Radebe – SANEF Acting Gauteng Regional Convenor 083 582 1734

The South African National Editors Forum (SANEF) welcomes today’s’ SABC Board statement in response to a story in the Sunday Times of 24th November 2019 titled: “SABC asks spooks to spy on staff” stating that it will not place journalists under surveillance. The SABC has stated that it does engage the State Security Agency (SSA) on several matters – such as the leaking of board minutes – but it has taken a clear decision never to place journalists under surveillance. We welcome this decision.

While the SABC board has a right to protect the image and the interests of the public broadcaster, they equally have a responsibility to safeguard the SABC from political interference. It is for this reason that we are uncomfortable with the involvement of the SSA as it has been politicised in recent times and used as a weapon in factional political battles.

The memory of the intimidation of SABC editors is still fresh on our minds as the state intelligence “swept” their offices recently in the name of protecting the SABC as “a national key point”. While the SABC board’s statement is reassuring by saying that journalists will not be under surveillance, Sanef finds it challenging to accept that the SSA will, at all times, act within those parameters.

As SANEF, we are well aware of the chilling effect of security agents probing journalists working at a public broadcaster. There is too much scope for abuse. The threats to freedom of expression are apparent. We know that both Houses of Parliament have passed the Critical Infrastructure Bill. The bill replaces the National Key Points Act. The SABC is a national key point and will now be a critical infrastructure. The bill was sent to the President for signing at which point it will become an Act.

Previously, SANEF made submissions on the bill arguing the unconstitutionality of provisions applied to journalists employed by an institution that is a national key point. We called for specific exceptions for editorial staff of the SABC from the provisions of the Critical Infrastructure Bill. Sadly, these were simply ignored by both Houses of Parliament. We will be writing to the President requesting him to consider SANEF’s submissions on the unconstitutionality of the bill and to refer it back to the National Assembly to reconsider these constitutional concerns.

We trust this will not be necessary and urge the President to send the bill back to Parliament to address the existing constitutionality problems with it. We officially give notice to the SABC Board, the President, Parliament and all South Africans that we act to protect the public broadcaster, including through launching legal proceedings to challenge the constitutionality of the bill if necessary.

Finally, we want to state that Mary Papayya, who is Sanef Acting Media Freedom Committee chairperson, is committed to media freedom. Her actions speak for itself as our acting media freedom chairperson. We also place it on record that she recused herself from all discussions on all SABC concerned matters at our council meeting on Saturday 23rd November 2019  – and has previously done so in all SABC matters generally.

SANEF has a conflict of interest policy to be henceforth included as a specific clause in our SANEF constitution. It states that our Council members and sub-committee chairpersons may never comment on any deliberations and decisions taken on the media house where they are employed

For The Record: The South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) is a non-profit organisation whose members are editors, senior journalists and journalism trainers from all areas of the South African media. We are committed to championing South Africa’s hard-won freedom of expression and promoting quality, ethics and diversity in the South African media. Sanef promotes excellence in journalism through fighting for media freedom, writing policy submissions, research, education and training programmes.

For More Info Please contact:

• Katy Katopodis – SANEF Deputy Chairperson – 082 805 7022
• Moipone Malefane – SANEF Secretary-General 082 772 5861
• Hopewell Radebe – SANEF Acting Gauteng Regional Convenor 083 582 1734
• Kate Skinner – SANEF Executive Director – 082 926 6404
• Judy Sandison – SANEF Media Freedom Committee 082 571-3334
• Sbu Ngalwa – SANEF Media Freedom 073 404 1415
• Janet Heard – SANEF Western Cape SANEF Convenor, 0780419528