The meeting is being arranged in the wake of an exchange of press statements this week between the two parties – and as an international "Save the Press" campaign gets off the ground.
As part of the campaign:
- An open letter to the State President from prominent editors, writers and media people around the world is to be published in South Africa's Sunday newspapers this weekend. The letter has been signed by, among others, the editors of the Independent, Mail on Sunday, and Observer of London, Politiken of Copenhagen, Expressen of Stockholm, the Times of India, the Statesman of India, the Hufvudstadbladet of Finland and the Mauritius Times. Other signatories are Lord Avebury of the British Parliamentary Human Rights Group, Peta Galliner of the International Press Institute and Bob Bernstein, chairman of Random House publishers.
- The Black Sash has circulated 1 000 copies of a chain letter, calling on the minister to stop his action against the press. They are asking people to sign the letter and pass it on to five friends.
- Stoffel Botha is about to receive a flood of letters from businessmen, editors, ambassadors, and ordinary readers of the Weekly Mail – all calling on him to reconsider his threat to the press.
When Botha issued a special Government Gazette last week warning the newspaper that he considered it to be publishing matter that was a threat to public safety, he simultaneously informed the editors that he was prepared to meet them under certain conditions.
The co-editors, Anton Harber and Irwin Manoim, replied saying they would be prepared to meet the minister to discuss matters arising from his warning. A date is expected to be set for sometime next week. On Sunday night, Botha issued a statement "in order to alert the general public not to be misled by the hysterical campaign in certain circles against the emergency media regulations."
He said "certain elements obstinately refuse to accept that by means of propaganda, publications are being used to promote the cause of revolutionaries … "The false impression is being created that I want to close down or place restrictions on publications indiscriminately; that freedom of speech and the free flow of information are unnecessarily restricted and that the emergency restrictions pertaining to the media have no other purpose than to shield the government against criticism. "All that is untrue," he said. He said what was true was that "there are certain elements inside and outside South Africa which want to brush aside the existing state of emergency in an off-hand manner as being unnecessary.
"We cannot allow ourselves to diverted from our course by naivity or reckless intent. "It would be irresponsible to allow the promotion of the cause of revolutionaries by positive publicity. The government is not irresponsible. "As far as the Weekly Mail is concerned, just this: I have repeatedly explained in public the provisions and application of the media regulations. The procedure according to which action is taken against a publication is long and makes ample provision for such a publication to state its case and to decide what it wants do. "Due to the organised outcry about he warning which I have issue the Weekly Mail, I want to state clearly and categorically that the matter rests squarely with the publishers of the Weekly Mail," he said.
The Weekly Mail co-editors responded by urging Botha not to dismiss the protest voices too lightly. "Mr Botha asks us to state or case: We are an independent critical newspaper, with ties to no organised group. We have a point of view: we believe in democratic values, in racism, and in open debate about the options for a changing South Africa. "Mr Botha accuses us of promoting revolution. He cannot surely, believe this. Our real crime is the telling of awkward truths which the government would prefer not to hear.
"Mr Botha appears astonished at the public outcry over his warning to the Weekly Mail. It seems he hoped to act against the press without a murmur of dissent. Instead, a wide range of people, both in South Africa and abroad, have appealed to him reconsider. "These are cautious, responsible people, not given to 'naivety', 'recklessness' or 'hysteria'," they said.
* The lights are fading fast for South, a Cape-based independent newspaper, as they submit their last representations to Botha. Once Botha has received and considered them, he could publish a gazette suspending the publication of the newspaper.
This article originally appeared in the Weekly Mail.
