In a move that has called into question the freedom of journalists to report on proceedings within its two Houses, Parliament has threatened to evict media organisations from their offices within the parliamentary precinct.
The threat came in the form of a letter to the Parliamentary Press Gallery Association (PGA) in which Secretary to Parliament Sindiso Mfenyana said the offices had to be vacated by noon on Friday.
”Should you fail to vacate the offices as stated above, the state attorney will be instructed to apply to the High Court for an eviction order without further notice or delay,” the letter states.
It follows an earlier letter from Mfenyana calling on journalists to clear out of their offices in a section of Parliament’s Old Assembly and New Wing buildings.
Efforts by the authorities to move journalists out of the precinct to alternative offices — a block away, outside Parliament’s security perimeter — have been going on for more than a year.
An agreement was struck between Mfenyana and the PGA late last year, whereby the association agreed its members would give up some offices in return for being allowed to stay in others.
With his threat to now proceed legally against journalists and force them to move, Mfenyana appears to have welshed on this agreement.
Media organisations affected by the secretary’s demand include, among others, the South African Press Association (Sapa), the country’s national wire service; Independent Newspapers, including The Star, Argus and Cape Times dailies; Naspers, including Die Burger, Beeld and Sowetan; and the foreign wire services Associated Press, Reuters and Bloomberg.
In a statement on Tuesday, the PGA said it strongly condemned Mfenyana’s eviction threat.
”The secretary to Parliament is in breach of an agreement with the PGA, reached in December 2003 after lengthy negotiations between ourselves, which clearly states that the PGA would hand over 10 of its 26 offices to Parliament on condition that PGA members would continue to use the remaining offices … without the threat of being moved again.
”As agreed, the PGA indeed handed over 10 offices to the secretary.”
The PGA said the location of the press gallery offices, midway between the two Houses of Parliament, is ”absolutely crucial to journalists being able to do their work properly”.
”While recognising Parliament’s authority, the PGA has repeatedly stressed the need for journalists to be accommodated in such a way that they are properly able to cover this crucial institution.
”Parliamentary reporters have long resisted the secretary’s plan to move us out of the parliamentary buildings to an unsafe building outside the immediate precincts, and we continue to oppose such a move as it will seriously hamper our work.”
The PGA said the letter was ”but the latest in a string of reprehensible acts of bad faith”.
Sapa editor Mark van der Velden described the move to evict journalists from their offices as ”sheer crassness”.
”More immediately worrying, though, is whether this threat to evict the press with a High Court order is not simply from a bureaucrat suffering a mental wobble, but is in fact being directed from a higher political level.
”If it is, that’s frightening. Is it really about a shortage of space after the PGA already gave up nearly half of its offices? Or is there some other motive to get the media out of the way?”
Van der Velden said a collective media presence has been an integral and highly valued watchdog feature of South Africa’s Parliament from the beginning.
”Banishing all the print media to a distant office tower outside the security precincts of Parliament will make its job of effective reporting and public scrutiny of elected representatives much more difficult.
”This is not in anybody’s interest: not the media; not those politicians who do want the public to see and hear what they are doing as public representatives; and, least of all, the general public itself.
”I sincerely hope someone at a higher level of authority will step in quickly to withdraw these eviction threats before the matter spins out of control,” he said.
Contacted for comment, the Media Institute of South Africa (Misa) described Mfenyana’s letter as a ”showing of bad faith”, given the existing agreement between Parliament and the PGA.
”Journalists need facilities and access to carry out their duties,” Misa spokesperson Jude Mathurine said.
Moving them across the road from Parliament, beyond the security gates, would impede their efficiency, he added. — Sapa