Article 1 for the News Portal:Freedom From A - Zuma

Author/s: Sabah Ismail and Nazia Mohammed

FREEDOM FROM ‘A to Zuma’:
The African National Congress (ANC) strikes us today as one of the most controversial parties within our country. Since the supremacy of Jacob Zuma in 2009, the ANC organisation was presented with problematic alliances from the beginning till date. Zuma had been an ingredient of the Schabir Sheik trials of corruption, rape charges and marital affairs, BUT, the apex of all the allegations in Zuma’s Presidency, was the Media VS Jacob Zuma.
He sued many media outlets such as ‘The Star’, ‘Rapport’, and Highveld Stereo and ‘The Citizen’ – all for publishing material that targeted and resulted in elements of defamation of Jacob Zuma’s character public profile through the use of; cartoons and radio commentaries. The media fought back and accused Zuma of challenging their freedom of speech.
Not only did the media fight back, but all parties such as the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the ANC Youth League (ANCYL) were involved, with the other members of parliament. Our two focuses are the DA and the ANCYL and the contradictory roles they portray ‘against’ and ‘for’ this new Media Tribunal.
According to Times Live, the ANCYL is in full support of the Media tribunal. Being an extension of the ANC we might not raise an eyebrow or two to this agreement of the ANCYL. They stand in full confidence of the media tribunal saying that its mission is merely to: “Nurture spiteful agendas which undermine the integrity of our organisations such as the SANEF (South African National Editor’s Forum), the useless media monitoring and evaluation, attack from news material such as The City Press, Sunday Times, Mail & Guardian, most Afrikaans media – Die Burger and Rapport that undermine the ANC’s integrity, also, all the listed newspapers of opposition parties explains why ANC and its structures are under continuous attack.” – According to Christopher Szabo’s article.
Helen Zille, leader of the DA, stands in opposition to the ANC and the ANCYL. She claims that there is a common-thread between the proposed legislation and the Media Tribunal to the methods of a pre-historic South Africa, a pre-democratic South Africa and the resemblance of the Apartheid era. According to Szabo’s article, Helen Zille’s campaign house (DA) reviews this proposal as “the gravest legislative threat to our constitution since 1994.”
Hence, our country is at a battle of time periods – a question of transitioning our country back to the ‘dark’ days or to a future with oppressed journalism talents? Freedom of speech is an element of our democratic state, something that was fought for many years ago, why defeat that purpose?
Have ANC progressed from liberation politics to democracy?
In the liberation struggle era the ANC used friendly media to its advantage, while coming down hard on those who opposed it in any way.
During this liberation struggle black journalists who criticized the ANC’s liberation-before-education strategy the “necklace” killing of people accused by street mobs of being “sell-outs”. In the eighties were terrorized by the ANC’s supporters in the burning of townships. Many of the more senior cadres in the ANC of today, and indeed in the SA Communist Party (SACP) which has given its support for the clampdown on press freedom, grew up politically within the ideological confines where the media and information were seen as a tool to be tightly controlled by the state and used as far as possible to its own advantage.
In sharp contrast to what the ANC has proposed, a Cosatu document indicates that the labour federation wants a tribunal that cannot be manipulated or abused by the state and will not lead to pre-publication self-censorship by newspapers. That could still prove to be a very important distinction. With the proposed Protection of Information Bill, the ANC has been less successful in obtaining universal support from its allies and in its own ranks. The campaign for muzzling and controlling the media has been led by high-visibility, populist leaders like President Jacob Zuma, SACP leader Blade Nzimande and ANC Youth League president Julius Malema.
At the same time the opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) has said it will privately get ANC members of parliament to vote against the Protection of Information Bill and oppose the media tribunal. Media freedom in South Africa, for now remains finely balanced on a very thin knife’s edge.
Ombudsman VS Media Tribunal:
In South Africa, after the vicious years of Apartheid, 1994 marked our freedom. This was the year of all freedoms. In 1996 our Constitution developed and represented each and every individual that lived in South Africa. Within the Constitution there were specific clauses that signify certain rights to one’s life.
During the years after Apartheid, along with other systems, a system began known to enable the public to submit complaints to a panel about media behaviour – complaints of newspapers and journalists specifically. This system was famously known as the Ombudsman.
Raymond Louw (Chairman of the Press Council) from his article: ‘Press Ombudsman system vs. ANC’s proposed Media Appeals Tribunal presented’ mentions that the Press Council has a vision that uphold the “basic principle that the freedom of the press rests on, is the public’s fundamental right to receive and disseminate opinions.’ This statement implies that the Media are obliged to comply with all the laws set out in the constitution just as any other individual does so.
The goal of the Ombudsman is to “enable complaints to achieve a speedier outcome.” There have been a total of 43 complaints from Cabinet members, ANC and the ANCYL. The results were: 3 apologies from the newspaper. There were also record of 33 complaints from government institutions “where 19 were closed and dismissed.” Within the complaints 16 in total were ministers (3 from the president and 2 from the deputy president) and others from various senior officials.
Raymond Louw also mentions a detailed explanation of the constitutions clause 9 which states the freedom of expression and how it may not be contravened. Lastly, he says that media will become a “political organisation” as it will demand and destroy press freedom and “seek to control the flow of information to the public” which we all have gathered, from this article and our own opinions that this Media Tribunal serves no purpose but to restrict the media.