The Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI) is deeply alarmed at government ”threats” to introduce legislation to make individuals and organisations ”speak responsibly” on sensitive matters.
The FXI said on Tuesday in a statement: ”It is also highly unfortunate that the government has chosen [World Press Freedom Day] to make these threats, given the fact that South Africa is being hailed on this day as one of the few countries in the Southern African region with a free media.”
”These threats will place a blot on that record on the very day when this freedom is being celebrated, and underlines the tenuous nature of this freedom,” the FXI said.
The FXI also called on the government not to make laws that would discourage public-interest bodies such as Earthlife Africa and the media from blowing the whistle when matters of life and death are at stake.
The threat follows a warning about excessively high levels of radiation at the Pelindaba nuclear facility west of Pretoria, made by Earthlife Africa, an environmental lobby group.
President Thabo Mbeki termed the warning ”reckless”, ”without foundation” and ”totally impermissible”.
The FXI said the government contested Earthlife’s statements by arguing that the organisation found pads used for instrument calibration purposes, and therefore their excessively high radiation levels were to be expected.
”However, Earthlife has since been vindicated by the National Nuclear Regulator [NNR] about the excessively high levels of radiation in the area, and they have also clarified the fact that their initial statement never alleged the existence of a toxic site, but had termed it a calibration site.
”Therefore, if any institution can be accused of making baseless statements, then it is the government itself,” the FXI said.
Incitement laws were used in the past to silence critics of the apartheid government, and it would be a sad day indeed for freedom of expression if attempts were made to invoke such laws once again.
”Such laws will inevitably be used to censor individuals, organisations and the media who attempt to raise pressing issues of public concern, and will foreclose on the search for truth in controversial matters through public debate.
”It will also chill freedom of expression by encouraging self-censorship, as organisations may stop making controversial statements out of fear of prosecution. If there is a dispute about the import of excessively high levels of radiation in the area, then the dispute should be settled in the public domain,” the group argued.
”Had it not been for Earthlife’s timely intervention, the government and the NNR may not have acted to contain the situation in the manner that they have. Earthlife should therefore be congratulated for their watchdog role, not attacked for it by the government.
”This attack underlines once again the fact that spaces are closing for NGOs that are critical of government, and the FXI as an NGO itself is deeply distressed by these incremental erosions of space for civil society.”
The FXI concluded that censoring organisations that raise ”compelling public interest matters” is not the answer — if their concerns prove to be false alarms, then they will be discredited in the eyes of the public, which will be the ultimate deterrent for organisations making baseless statements. — Sapa