George Orwell wrote: “If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear.”

In August, President Jacob Zuma stated: “The print media, like other institutions, cannot be viewed to be above the Constitution… let the real debate begin. Let there be no holy cows!”

Muzzling the media is about as useful as imprisoning Nelson Mandela was almost half a century ago. Mandela did not go away; in fact, it made him even stronger.

The difference is that these days, it will not go underground – it will go into the ether!

So, Mr President, if there should be no holy cows in your opinion, then let us work off that premise:

You say this media tribunal is in the best interest of national security.

Would it have been in our national interest for our top cop to continue accepting bribes from underworld figures as long as we remained ignorant? Would it have been in the interest of national security if we had not known about the arms deal debacle and the benefits your own ‘personal adviser’ Schabir Shaik accumulated? Would it have been in our best national interest not to know about ministers staying in a top hotel for months while their house was being refurbished, or clocking up holiday air miles on our taxes? Is it in our best interest not to know how government tenders are awarded, and not to question why Julius Malema’s company had been accorded so many tenders?

The dark days of apartheid are littered with covered up murders and disinformation to the public in the name of “national security”, and look how that ended.

The bottom line is that if you do not want the press to report on embarrassing incidents, then stop getting involved in embarrassing incidents; if you do not want the press to report on crime, then eradicate crime; if you do not want the press to report on corruption, then eliminate corruption; if you do not want the press to report on poor service delivery, then deliver; and if you do not want the press to report on incompetence, then employ qualified people instead of deploying under-qualified cronies.

But no matter what you try to do, the information on crime, the foibles of politicians, corruption, service delivery and incompetence will be disseminated one way or the other.

The press can be your ally if you deal straight from the deck; but if you frog-march members of the press across divisional borders, expect some embarrassing questions... again!