OWN CORRESPONDENT, Johannesburg | Sunday 12.35pm.
THE editors of the Mail & Guardian and the Sunday Times have been subpoenaed to appear before the Human Rights Commission to respond to allegations of racism.
The editors could face fines or six months in prison if they ignored the summons to appear before the body next month.
The commission is holding a set of hearings into the media following the widely criticised publication of a racism survey last November.
The subpoenas to the two papers’ editors state that they have to produce policy documents, directives from their owners and minutes of meetings which relate to matters of race.
Editors questioned the qualifications of consultant Claudia Braude who spearheaded the survey, while The Star dismissed its findings as “obvious nonsense.”
Mail & Guardian editor Philip van Niekerk was said he is not sure how he will respond to the summons.
“We have not made up our minds … there are enormous legal and press freedom issues around it.”
The Freedom of Expression Institute said on Sunday it was “heavy-handed” of the commission to subpoena editors and it feared the body had lost its respect for media freedom.
The South African National Editors Forum said the HRC’s action was a “flagrant violation of South Africa’s newly-won democratic right of a free press.”