Black Wednesday: media-government showdown intensifies

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"To say that the public is not happy with the way the media reports is reminiscent of the apartheid regime, but the truth is that the public wants the media to do more," veteran journalist Joe Latakgomo said, speaking at the commemoration of the 33rd anniversary of Black Wednesday held today, Tuesday, 19 October 2010, at Wits University in Johannesburg.

Loud activitations

The media's series of loud activations, which includes marches, online protests, social media spaces, advertising, seminars, bumper stickers, T-shirts slogans and other public relations stunts, is aimed at drawing the public's attention that the country's democratic rights are under threat, the South African National Editors' Forum (SANEF) says.

"Propaganda is the only form of reporting the government never complains about," Latakgomo said.

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He said the media must be left alone to say what it wants and what it believes, adding that Government's strategies to suppress the flow of information is tantamount to wrong deeds' cover-up, which he said will lead to misinformation and distortion.

SANEF's radical moves comes just three days after the government held a 'cordial' meeting with the media - a gathering some experts have dismissed as a 'wasteful exercise' due to the government's recalcitrant moves.

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"But nothing changed"

"We have held these kinds of meetings in the past but nothing changed, as the government continued to wield the axe every time the media started what it was supposed to be doing," Latakgomo said.

Allison Bethel McKenzie, of the Vienna-based International Press Institute (IPI), told the audience that the threat by the SA government to limit media freedom has led the US to downgrade SA from a free media country to a partially free media country. "It will be a tragedy if media freedom were to be curtailed in this country of sacrifices, whose democracy was built on the sweat and blood of many men and women," she said.

Many believe the ANC's attempt to curtail media freedom is in violation of Nelson Mandela's philosophy, which states that a free media is the lifeblood of any democratic society.

ANC senior member and former cabinet member Kader Asmal said free speech was not only vital for journalists, but also for the whole of society. "We must carry the Bill of Rights like a Bible or a Koran that can protect the free speech," he said, adding that the presence of the press ombudsman was critical for the media industry.

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"Free speech is the whole ball game."

Asmal, who currently teaches at the University of Cape Town's Faculty of Law, added: "Free speech is the whole ball game. It is life itself because it builds many good things.

"Look at Zapiro's work: it gets under someone's skin and sometimes it hurts, but it is still free speech, and free speech gives someone the liberty to know and argue freely about things. Freedom of expression is the liberty on top of which all the liberties are built.

"The idea of separating one liberty from others and detach freedom of expression from other freedoms is misleading and dangerous. The more open we are, the better," he said.

Mandla Langa, a writer and intellectual, said artistic creativity is the form of expression that demonstrates that humans have moved from the jungle to the real world.

For more:

• Bizcommunity: Download the full text of Prof Kader Asmal's Media Freedom Day speech
  
• Ewn.co.za: Report raises concerns about 'armchair journalists' on Media Freedom Day
  
• Mail & Guardian Online: 'The right to know is a fundamental right'
  
• BuaNews.gov.za: Press Club welcomes SANEF meeting