A wide range of individuals and organisations have reacted with outrage to the government’s latest inroads into the remnants of press freedom in South Africa.
Even though yesterday’s government gazette did not fulfill the direst predictions — extending to the expected closure of some newspapers — the regulations are seen as the most serious threat yet to the supply of information.
The chairman of the South African Media Council, ex-Appellate Division, Judge L de V van Winsen, said “the omission of certain news and views will lull the public into a false and potentially fatal sense of complacency”.
The restrictions constitute “the most far-reaching constraints yet placed upon the free flow of news during the present crisis”, he said. He appealed for a “reconsideration” of the regulations, saying “failure to draw attention to the risk they entailed would be a dereliction of the public responsibility delegated by the Media Council’s Charter”.
Church group, political organisations, professional associations, trade unions and even a foreign government have come out in swift and strong condemnation of government clamp.
- The Anglican Church’s liaison officer, Bishop John Carter, said “only authoritarian regimes of the worst kind, that are afraid to let people know what is happening, would resort to such measures”.
such as these to regain control”.