Media freedom and anti-censorship bodies have won the first battle against a Bill to force pre-publication submission of newspaper articles.
Cabinet this week instructed the Department of Home Affairs to get the views of media practitioners and other interested parties before making the Film and Publications Amendment Bill into law.
As it stands, the Bill requires that newspapers be included in the category of media that should submit content for classification.
Media groups have criticised the Bill, saying that it went beyond even apartheid-era press laws that did not allow for pre-publication oversight.
The government’s defence has been that the laws are necessary to protect children from exposure to pornographic material.
In a statement released on Thursday, Cabinet said: “We would like to reiterate that the government has no intention whatsoever to muzzle the media in any way, and that this position will not change. However, Cabinet took the view that the Bill must be published in its current form and that public discourse must be allowed before the Bill is promulgated.”
Home affairs spokesperson Cleo Mosana said the department would follow Cabinet instructions and meet with groups such as the South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef), children’s rights organisations and other parties that had an interest in the Bill.
She denied that the Bill was meant to gag the media. “It is not censorship or banning of any kind. We don’t have the legal capacity to do that,” said Mosana. “We want, should there be complaints against newspapers, to ensure that they adhered to guidelines of the Film and Publications Board. There is no need for panic.”
She conceded that there could have been a more “aggressive engagement” with the media to stave off “this panic mode”.
In its response Sanef, the Media Institute of Southern Africa and the Freedom of Expression Institute welcomed the Cabinet statement, urging Parliament “to deal with the issues as a matter of urgency”.
Sanef councillor Raymond Louw added: “We hope that the opportunity that Cabinet has indicated will be presented to us will enable us to persuade the home affairs department to drop the pre-publication censorship aspect of the Bill.”