As journalists were celebrating the lifting of most of the Emergency media regulations, Vrye Weekblad journalist Charles Leonard was being brutally beaten by riot squad police while reporting on student celebrations. A few days later, local and foreign journalists were ordered away from a scene of ”unrest” in Tembisa And on Tuesday, two foreign correspondents covering the rebel English cricket tour, Paul Weaver of Today newspaper and Gareth Furby of Independent Radio News, were expelled from the country. These events cast a pall over State President F W de Klerk’s announcement last Friday that almost all of the Emergency media regulations would be lifted.
Journalists, media organisations and lawyers, welcomed the lifting of these regulations, but fear that police will rely on existing Emergency and other security legislation to stifle the media. Media lawyers say the repeal of most of the regulations will have a ”significant effect” on what can and cannot be reported, but caution that police can still use other regulations to order journalists off a scene of unrest. It is now legal to publish written re¬ ports or sound recordings of unrest or police action, though the publication of visual material is still prohibited.
Lawyers stress, however, that it is no longer an offence to take pictures of security action, even though they may not be published. Film or video footage may not be confiscated until it has been screened, and seizure of material or a publication no longer rests on the subjective decision of the minister of home affairs or commissioner of police. Instead, confiscation rests on an ”objective test” as to whether Emergency regulations have been contravened. A vast amount of news -falling under the official ”unrest” category – can now be reported on. This includes so-called people’s courts, street committees, illegal strikes and boycotts. Says one media lawyer: ”Whereas before, one could not write a story reflecting the success of one of these events, one can now call for people to participate in a boycott”.
She adds that most publications were barely complying with the media regulations before De Klerk’s announcements, so the change may not be that noticeable. For example illegal strikes, calls for the release of detainees and African National Congress policy, were extensively publicised beforehand. But there is growing concern that the change most journalists welcome the go-ahead to a cover unrest situations – will be counteracted by police who still have the power to order people off a scene in terms of the security regulations.
The Anti-Censorship Action Group (Acag) this week issued a statement saying: ‘The repeal of the media regulations is of little significance if police are able to invoke the security Emergency Regulations to justify ordering journalists to leave a particular area”
This article originally appeared in the Weekly Mail.
