Govt the loser in Sunday Times wrangle

Because, on one hand, Government is being put under intense pressure by society at large and ironically from newspapers such as the Sunday Times to stop allowing criminals to get away with crime. On the other, because Government has chosen to "fast track" this investigation by putting pressure on the police to appoint its top investigators to the case, the perception both at home and abroad will undoubtedly be one of an attack on press freedom.

It's not about press freedom

Strangely enough this whole hoo-hah has nothing at all to do with press freedom when one thinks about it. As Makanya said in his own newspaper yesterday: "We are all equal before the law." In reality, this is simply a case of someone having allegedly nicked some private medical records, which in this country is a crime. And it's not exactly a major offence either. Quite frankly no-one expects a guilty sentence to be punished with anything but a fairly light sentence which will inevitably be suspended anyway.

Guilty or innocent, the Sunday Times will come out of this smelling like roses. If, for some reason, the case is kicked out of court on some or other technicality or if it is simply found not guilty, Government will be perceived to be following its neighbours to the north with an orchestrated, no-holds barred attack on the media. A perception that will be exacerbated by the recent dismissal of the deputy health minister and the director of public prosecutions.

Minor error of Judgement

At worst, in the bigger scheme of things, all a guilty verdict will be seen as is a minor error of judgement in a major media investigation into the integrity and suitability of a cabinet minister to continue serving the nation.

As Justice Malala quite rightly pointed out in an opinion column in yesterday's Sunday Times, the Health Minister has never refuted any of the allegations against her of drinking heavily while in hospital and having been found guilty of theft in Botswana. She has simply just single-mindedly honed in on the question of her medical records which, when compared with everything else, is very much small potatoes.

So far, the Sunday Times is winning the PR war over this issue. Its banner headlines yesterday made it clear that it was expecting arrests. Almost as though it was hoping that there would not only be arrests, but that they would be as dramatic as possible.

This case is going to keep the story alive and the probe into the health minister's actions high up in the public domain. No good newspaperman would, under these circumstances, want this to all go away because it's far too good for business and far too important in the national interest to allow the public to get bored with it.

But, one has to feel for Government. It simply cannot afford to turn a blind eye because that will have critics baying for its blood for allowing high profile people to escape the long arm of the law.

Government mistake

Where Government has made its PR mistake is allowing the health minister to use her influence to have this case fasttracked and to have exerted pressure on colleagues in SAPS to put their top detectives onto it. Reluctantly it seems, given the negative comments some detectives made in media reports.

This has made the reality of the case completely irrelevant because the perception is now one of persecution rather than the law simply running its course.

Guilty or innocent, the Sunday Times can be assured of this story staying alive far longer than expected. It will be good for sales of course and even better for the public image of a newspaper that is prepared to suffer the indignity of public arrest and prosecution of its staff in an effort to uncover government shenanigans.

In terms of Government, for the life of me I cannot see anything positive coming out of this at all. Except perhaps a harsh lesson in how to deal with the media. When will Cabinet learn to respond immediately to allegations with openness and honesty – something that will win it a lot of support – rather than keep silent for far too long and then simply blunder about with contradictory statements that just sink it deeper into a quagmire of suspicion.

Again to quote Malala: "I am angry and I am afraid. But, mostly I am ashamed. Ashamed that in this country we all keep quiet while evil is so routinely perpetrated by a bunch we ourselves put into power..."

Riding roughshod

Now, Government might well shrug this off as the raving of an over-emotional journalist. That it is devoid of reality. But, it is a notion that more and more South Africans seem to be embracing through the perception that Government is riding roughshod over democracy, the constitution and the law itself.

And, as Government fails to realise, reality is nothing, perception is everything.

And if there is a reality in this all, it is that the Sunday Times has nothing to lose and everything to win, while Government has everything to lose and nothing at all to win.

For more:

• Bizcommunity.com: Govt the loser in Sunday Times wrangle
  
• Bizcommunity.com: Times arrests: 'The politics of double standards'
  
• IOL: Media outrage as editor faces arrest
  
• The Times Online: Deafening silence as Mbeki and Co reduce South Africa to a state ...
  
• The Times Online:Editor, Journalist to be Arrested
  
• The Wild Frontier: Makhanya's arrest a bleak and ominous moment for our country [The Times Online editor Ray Hartley's blog]
  
• Business Day: Times editors to hand themselves over
  
• The Dispatch: Dangerous times ahead [Editorial opinion]
  
• IOL: Manto's records 'on sale for cash bundle'
  
• News24.com: Zille: Freedom is being eroded
  
• IOL: DA concerned by reports of Makhanya blitz
  
• Mail & Guardian Online: Concern over govt vs Sunday Times
  
• IOL: Sunday Times editor to be arrested
  
• Mail & Guardian Online: Sunday Times editor to hand himself in
  
• IOL: Handcuffs for Makhanya?
  
• News24.com: Sanef outraged over Manto move
  
• SABCnews.com: Sunday Times duo to turn themselves in

Keyword search results on blog aggregators:

• Mondli Makhanya on Amatomu
  Sunday Times on Amatomu
  
• Mondli Makhanya on Afrigator
  
• Sunday Times on Afrigator
  
• Mondli Makhanya on Technorati

• Sunday Times on Technorati

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