Later Tarentaal conceded that his request was based on a desire by the family to have the matter finalised and to subject them to still further media coverage was "not in the interests of justice".
SANEF noted with approval that presiding judge Siraj Desai told Tarentaal that inquest proceedings were as a matter of course open proceedings; indeed, open court proceedings are upheld in SA's constitution as a key requirement for the administration of justice and the judge rightly ruled that the inquest would be open.
SANEF has also taken issue with Tarentaal for stating that his request was also based on his presupposition that the media would report insensitively on the proceedings. The media's role is to report the proceedings in such cases without fear or favour and it has a duty not to be swayed by factors such as how members of the family would regard the reports.
For the same reason SANEF has regretted that it was reported that the judge questioned representatives of the SABC and e.tv on how they would report the proceedings and concluded that they would deal sensitively with matters.
Reaching such a conclusion about the manner in which the proceedings will be reported comes perilously close to breaching the principle that such reporting should be without fear or favour and the media's independence.
SANEF has also condemned the use by the police of the discredited Key Points Act in the arrest of two members of the Scorpions who were apparently mistaken as drug smugglers at Johannesburg International Airport.
According to the press statement, SANEF is appalled that this Act - which is on a list of laws which it and other media organisations regard as unconstitutional and which they have presented to the Department of Justice requesting its scrapping - should have been dragged from its apartheid limbo by police officers.
