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Onslaught symptomatic of regime under siege
A storm of hostile rhetoric, often displaying a complete lack of understanding of the workings of democratic processes, seems to be gathering momentum in the African National Congress (ANC) while a set of controversial media-directed piece of draft legislation is under consideration. With not even all its governing alliance partners on board, the scape-goating of the media is probably as symptomatic of crisis management as a planned grab at total power.
The South African officialdom’s onslaught on the media and the free flow of information is not unique. It is in many ways simply a cruder, sometimes more direct variant of what some international commentators are starting to call the war on journalism.
While the Confederation of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), part of the ANC-led governing alliance, has declared its opposition to the proposed Protection of Information Bill, Hlengiwe Mgabadeli – ANC MP and chair of parliament's Defence committee – reportedly said at the public hearings on the bill that: In a democratic state, the government should be trusted to protect the good and rid it of evil without the help of the media.
She further accused journalists of being unpatriotic, disloyal South Africans, without explaining how the public would be able to make an informed democratic decision on whether the party in power is disposing of its duties properly and is worthy of trust if they would only hear and read what the governing party wanted them to hear and read.
Cecil Burgess, ANC chair of the ad hoc committee dealing with the bill, took the political allusion of patriotism a step further by asking Mail & Guardian editor Nic Dawes: “Are you with the struggle, or are you against the struggle?” Again, there was no explanation of what the "struggle" is supposed to be at this point in South Africa’s history.
The ANC has, over some time now, suffered under extremely bad press emanating from highly embarrassing revelations by opposition parties and media, and exposure of its internal turmoil and incidents of corruption and nepotism. The bad run already began during Thabo Mbeki's term as president with revelations surrounding the massive arms deal, then came the imprisonment of President Jacob Zuma’s personal financial adviser, the Jackie Selebi trial, and the shenanigans of ANC Youth League president Julius Malema, to name but a few.
Three-pronged assault
The ANC’s latest response to its increasing appearance as a party in crisis is a three-pronged assault on media freedom:
Plans to reintroduce the notion of a state-run media tribunal, first mooted at its 2007 Polokwane conference, after it was shelved in the face of strong criticism and opposition;
The Protection of Information Bill which, if it should become law, will give the state – including commercial state enterprises – complete control over the flow of information; and Legislation aimed at forcing journalists to reveal their sources.
The sort of implications of this approach is best illustrated by the fact that if the proposed Protection of Information Act had been in place at the time, it would probably not have been possible for Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille to lay bare in parliament the massive corruption involved in the multibillion-rand arms deal, which eventually saw Shabir Schaik going to jail.
Neither did incidents such as the infamous broadcast by eTV of two criminals who threatened to target soccer tourists during the Fifa World Cup tournament do the media’s case any good.
What South Africa probably needs most now is calm heads in both government and media leadership circles. Some way needs to be found to look at models to give the government some input into and exposure to the workings of the existing self-regulatory media regime which, without inhibiting media freedom, also takes care of what may be regarded as legitimate concerns of national importance.
If a way out of the present collision course is not found soon, our young democracy may just be dealt a mortal blow.
International scene
In the United States, the Pentagon has long been accused of manipulating information from the battle fronts of the war in which it gets involved. In a counterinsurgency manual produced in 2006, it is stated that wars of perception are fought in which the news media is a major component; and if they do not become part of that war, they could easily become part of the enemy.
As the Barack Obama administration faces major embarrassment with the ongoing BP oil disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, it has been accused of cover-up attempts by barring the public and the news media from coming within 20 metres of clean-up operations without permission of the Coast Guard. Planes have also been banned from flying over the spill zone below 3 000 feet, and helicopters below 1 500 feet without special exemption from the Federal Aviation Administration.
“There are by now countless reports of journalists and citizens being ordered away from beaches or blocked from viewing the spill from land, air and sea by BP, the Coast Guard and hired security agents,” Information Clearinghouse reported early in July.
In the United Kingdom, an official inquiry has blown wide open the distortion of information by the Tony Blair administration to justify that country’s involvement in the war in Iraq.
The involvement of the UK’s then Labour government in the illegal abduction and torture of its own citizens after the al-Qaeda attacks of September 2001 also came out recently, with the disclosure during high court proceedings of a number of highly classified documents. The torture, among others, took place during questioning at a US airbase in Afghanistan.
In 2008 Der Spiegel’s online service reported: “There’s black gold beneath the snow-white Arctic – and oil companies are gearing up to exploit it on a massive scale. Scientists had hoped to warn of the scope of the environmental dangers of Arctic drilling in a new report, but 60 passages have been removed following pressure from the United States and Sweden."
In Venezuela, two people were recently arrested for allegedly violating a provision in the country’s banking laws, prohibiting the dissemination of false information on Twitter.
And, the list goes on and on. As far back as 2007, the AEJ Media Freedom Survey reported: “The survey reveals a common pattern in many countries: journalists and news organisations face multiple barriers to their work from restrictive laws, unjustified interventions by government authorities, and a mixture of overt and unseen pressures to manipulate or distort their work.”
