Johannesburg | Sunday
THE National Intelligence Agency’s inquisition into the sexual CV’s of prospective members of the presidential press corps gave new meaning to the constitutional concept ”organ of state”, the Democratic Alliance said on Sunday.
”The love lives of journalists (like their financial or psychological health) cannot serve as a qualification or disqualification for inclusion in the corps without infringing on their privacy,” DA MP Dene Smuts said in a press release.
She was referring to reports that a questionnaire to be filled out by future members of the presidential press corps wanted to know — among other things — whether the applicant would accept sex in exchange for information.
Applicants are also required to present bank statements and furnish the names of men and women colleagues willing to testify about their sex lives.
When asked about the contents of the questionnaire, Intelligence Ministry spokeswoman Lorna Daniels said: ”On the surface it seems quite offensive, but you’ve got to understand the reason is to test people during that phase, and then ask the same questions when they are being polygraphed.”
It seemed clear, Smuts said, judging from Daniels’ remarks, that the answers to these probes, cross-checked with the journalists’ referees, would indeed serve to include or exclude them. ”Her argument that these ‘heart-thumping’ questions are really asked to check, during polygraph testing, whether journalists have been lying, strikes us as outrageous…journalists are supposed to ask politicians ‘heart-thumping’ questions, not the other way around,” Smuts said.
On behalf of the DA, she called on the Minister in charge of the GCIS, Essop Pahad, to call a halt to the questionnaire.
”SA is being made to look ridiculous and the President’s stature and dignity is harmed by such questions as ”what the reporter would do if he or she caught the president having sex”.
Smuts also called on all editors to withdraw their publications or stations from participation in the press corps until the matter had been satisfactorily dealt with.
The South African National Editor’s Forum, which first discussed the proposed corps with President Thabo Mbeki, should intervene, Smuts said. – Sapa