African National Congress secretary-general Gwede Mantashe in a report in The Star newspaper on Friday called upon newspaper editors to join the debate on setting up a media tribunal rather than act defensively.
Mantashe said the invitation is in order that the media engage in the debate constructively and exchange ideas rather than defend its territory.
He said the debate will be taking place irrespective.
“It is up to them, if they think they are on the defensive and must take a laager approach to that discussion, they are doing that at their own peril.”
In effect the ANC wants an independent statutory body accountable to Parliament to deal with complaints against newspapers.
This in addition to the Press Ombudsman.
In response :
Firstly the secretary-general is using rhetoric in place of substance. The editors are not defending their turf but rather repeatedly setting out in great detail exactly why a media tribunal can never be allowed in a constitutional democracy like South Africa. If that isn’t the debate what is?
Secondly an independent media tribunal can never be accountable to Parliament because that is the very body that is being kept under scrutiny by the media for abuse and corruption. As we have witnessed in the arms deal matter when it comes to politicians being allowed to have a say in their own policing, issues get swept under the table.
Thirdly the Protection of Information Bill coming at a time when appropriate legislation to cover legitimate security concerns are in place smacks of a cover-up. If this is read together with the proposed tribunal it suggests that if the threat of the act doesn’t put you off — 15-25 years in jail for offenders — try our tribunal.
Fourthly why would information, other than that involving national security, require these draconian measures? The past has shown that the biggest problem with corruption in South Africa lies among our politicians. It is in the interest of national security that this threat to service delivery be exposed. It is in the interest of thieves and scoundrels that it doesn’t.
Fifthly the question of slander and defamation is more than adequately covered by prevailing legislation and there are more than sufficient civil and criminal remedies available to those who feel they have been wronged.
Sixthly is the record of the ANC or its projections for the future so bad that they will do anything to prevent South Africans from being made aware of it? Are we to be told in Mugabe-like fashion when millions are on the brink of starvation that colonialism and apartheid are responsible while a handful of fat cats live like Donald Trump? Is the government seriously expecting the media to condone their hiding of information?
Seventhly, while we are debating, perhaps the secretary-general might respond to my point on the arms deal by explaining how in the light of overwhelming evidence the government has failed to convene an inquiry. After all it’s the same parties telling us to trust them for guidance on what information should be in the public domain.
The Bill and tribunal are not only a bad idea but smack of cover-up on the part of the ANC.
I will over the period leading up to debate be putting out the odd article or two to cover this in detail.
Sometimes defending our revolution requires that we resist our own instincts. This bill is indefensible.
what revolution Frank? the war has been won 16 years ago. should the focus at some point not shift to evolution – making continuous positive changes to benefit all?
Is Mantashe embarrassed by his reported largess at public expense?
I would suggest that this has little to do with the ‘press’ it is more about the tax payer’s right to know what their taxes are being used for. And for some, like Mantashe, he’d rather we think he really is a selfless servant of the people.
The “Media Tribunal” is a case of dressing the Emperor and his Court (ANC) in “new clothes”. Even a blind person could see through this ridiculous power grab and the greed and self-interest that motivate it. The ANC may think that by calling their tribunal “Independent” they are effectively donning camouflage but the opposite is true: the only thing truly transparent about the ANC is its determination to stamp out Democracy.
The ANC don’t have to change the Constitution to do that–they just have to IGNORE THE CONSTITUTION as they have over the arms deal, Zuma’s court case, firing Vusi Pikoli, stacking the Courts with pro-Zuma judges, failing to prosecute any of the cabinet or MPs or ANC council members for corruption despite overwhelming evidence, permitting Simelane to interfere in the Jub Jub case, and on and on…
One need look no further than our next door neighbours in Zim to see the result of government control of the Media. But do look further. Name one dictatorship in Africa that did not take over the Media. Every one of them used the same tactic to grab power or stay in office for life by denying the citizens access to information other than that praising the government.
The benighted heads of the ANC believe that criticism should not be permitted. In that they are in perfect accord with the Apartheid government pre-1994.
Perhaps when the only government you know is dictatorial, you think it’s normal…
It should be obvious that a government with nothing to hide has nothing to fear from the media.
The ANC has somehow leveraged the fact that two Cape Argus journalists have been found guilty of cheque-book journalism, to a stance where the whole print media is ruled by self-interest and lack of morality, forgetting in the process of course that it was a senior ANC member (promoted to Ambassador rank for his efforts!) who bribed these two to write articles favourable to the ANC, using ANC funds!
The hypocrisy of this stance beggars belief.
What is happening within the ANC? From a position where it was internationally lauded for its moral, ethical egalitarian stance, it has morphed into an organisation of extreme self-interest, corruption and patronage on a massive scale and in the process moved from international paragon of virtue to pariah state alongside some of the World’s most notorious failed states.
Are we so quickly lose and abandon the international goodwill that resulted from our successful holding of the World Cup and forget the valuable lessons in nation-building contained therein on the altar of protecting the ANC and Government from the rampant rot that even their own recent document expresses extreme concern of?
Wake up, Citizens – we cannot let the new breed of super pigs on our Animal Farm to re-write press freedoms according to the tenets predicted so accurately by George Orwell.
If the Protection of Information Bill is to prevent the media from misinforming the public, why should it not apply to politicians too?
Sicelo Shiceka, the co-operative governance minister (?), appeared in public on Thursday July 29th, on crutches and with a scar on his head. This is after his spokesperson, Vuyelwa Qinga-Vika said that he was ‘not nursing any wounds; he is on sick leave’ 15 years M’Lord?
Traps you articles are so good but why do you have to be ‘politically correct’.
This bill smacks of an ANC cover up, you say, – this bill is and ANC cover up.
As we saw in the recent papers and the reports that Sisulu, the Minister of Defence,will not release to the public because the DA will try to make political milaeage out of them.
If you have nothing to hide then why try to hide anything.
The ANC has to stop the assault on their ‘integrity’ because they have no integrity and are mired in corruption and ineptitude.
All Dictatorships ,and South Africa is and ANC led Dictatorship have to muzzle the press and this is what they are doing.
We all know it so lets all declare it from the roof tops and not be mealie mouthed about it. Our freedoms are slipping away but with an overwhelming majority in parliament there is very little or nothing that we can do about it.
Mao Tse Tung wrote that the only way to overcome revolution is with another revolution. God knows and we know that this is what we want least. Let us hope that sanity prevails and those who vote ANC Forever wake up and vote for someone else. We need to vote for ‘standards and principles’, not a party that has lost its way. And now were are to have Super Tax to fund the Super Gravy Train, but that will be coeverd up too.
You’ve got it.
We’ve got it.
But it might not be a bad idea for a few media representatives to be there to do their utmost to make government get it too.
A lawyer wouldn’t hurt either.
Please volunteer, Traps.
From my perspective, which is Sweden, what’s happening around freedom of speach etc in SA is not just disturbing but right out frightening. I can’t find words to say how wrong this is. And I can tell you all that I’m not the only one with this view. The world will follow the development and deplore SA/ANC if this path is persued.
Pierre de Vos on the ANC’s deployment of Cde Simelane as chief crony in the NPA: “a gangster hellbent on protecting himself”.
How prophetic.
Just another nail.
It is inevitable. A child that walks before it crawls is doomed to inadequate development: Piaget.
The ANC inherited a functioning State. As did most post colonial societies. Not having been responsible for building, brick by agonizing brick, the substance of their inheritance, the State must inevitably regress, under the weight of competitive self interest, as have those others around us.
A century after nightfall it may be that new generations, having been fed for a time on accumulated and confiscated wealth, must then acknowledge that it is time to rebuild on valid foundations.
In the meantime the functioning `State’, to the extent that we knew it, must be consumed. This is the way of our human history. For as long as the majority accept the myth that only the Apartheid evildoers were capable of oppression, for that long we must regress…
Fight it Herr Trapido, because you must.
Understand though that darkness inevitably follows day, and our period of daylight wanes to the twilight of our short Weimar.
The damage is done; our economy languishes in perpetual stagnation and there is not much new loot left for all who need feeding… and… there is no light at the end of the tunnel… John Gault has left the arena.It is necessary that the parasites who have the helm fend off those who would board their little raft. Hence protection is needed.
It is a time when sensible people prepare their defences and see to it that the moat is clear.
Leave our loved anc alone you bloddy agent. Put those jurnalist in jail because thay only wrote bad stories about the party. our comrades only steel a little money, the old goverment stole lots.
The ANC must be made to realize that this is a fight they cannot win. A massive campaign needs to be mounted against the Media Tribunal and the Protection of Information Bill. We should not yield an inch of our hard-won democratic freedoms.
This is a battle that the educated people of SA will have to fight, also on behalf of those who don’t understand the dangers they invite by tolerating the oppression of their perceived opponents, and who still trust the ANC.
The ANC has a lot to hide, and most of the posts here eloquently point out to. There is another aspect which the ANC knows works, like intimidating, harassing and haranguing the poor defenseless African majority, not they are gunning for the White minorities to put them in line. I say this because that is what bullies like Mantashe believe in. They reckoned that if the can silence their voting majority with all the shenanigans performed, they can just as well as shut the so called ‘nosy’ minority’. Some of the comments on some topic here on M&G are repulsive, some are sensible. This imbalance is what makes the ANC thrive. Of course, there are these “Knuckle-heads” in the service of the ANC, one can imagine, who intimidate the voters during the voting time, using various tactics, dirty of misleading, on the voters are like in the poor sections of our country. But the poor and shut-down majority’s murmurs are gaining in crescendo. Just as the Apartheid regime ignored the plight of the majority Africans, and as does the ANC do the same, ignore its electorate, they are merely lighting the fuse, which, no one knows, will explode, and things are not going to be pretty…. The strangest part of all this is that the ANC imagines it is hiding something, but, in the township intelligence, they are brutally naked, and sadly transparent, and it time, the “Inziles” and the “Exiles” gap is getting broader, libambeni Lingashoni….
The ANC can do no wrong… why wouldn’t they shut the media up?