Gauteng police on Wednesday told media organisations not to make direct contact with police stations following the newly introduced police-centralisation process.
”There will be no comments to media enquiries from any member of the service in the province … Do not attempt to make direct contact at police stations because only official spokespersons at provincial head office will deal with the media,” Director Govindsamy Mariemuthoo said in a statement on Wednesday.
The centralisation process, said to be part of an ”outrageous pattern of [media] censorship” by the Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa), will take effect on January 22.
In effect, the restructuring removes area media liaison officers within the police who previously facilitated the speedy dissemination of information on crime.
From January 22 media organisations will have to liaise only with provincial communication officers.
”This latest move to limit the flow of police information to the public follows the outrageous pattern of censorship … and shows how fast the government is creating an information-starved state, which is totally opposed to the democratic principles it purports to uphold,” said deputy chairperson of the South African branch of Misa, Raymond Louw.
Misa called on the police national commissioner (Jackie Selebi) to halt the restructuring process and discuss practical solutions with the media while the South African National Editors’ Forum said they will request an urgent meeting with the hierarchy of the South African Police Service.
Louw said that the restructuring, attempts to push through the Films and Publications Amendment Bill last year, the clampdown on the publication of crime statistics and barring journalists from important court hearings is a ”contravention of the spirit and letter of the Constitution”.
”I’m quite worried about it … that it might be more difficult to get information,” said David Canning, the editor of the Mercury newspaper in Durban.
”Nobody’s informed us. Maybe they’ll eventually tell us about it,” he said.
”It is worth monitoring how this [restructuring] will affect the free flow of information,” said Thabo Leshilo, editor-in-chief of the Sowetan newspaper and Sunday World.
”We’re going to run stuff without police comment if we need to,” warned a Gauteng crime reporter, speaking on condition of anonymity. ”Information is being centralised. It’s very frustrating.”
Earlier on Wednesday national police spokesperson Vishnu Naidoo said police officials who had dealt with the media at a local level up until now will be re-deployed according to a skills audit, which determines individuals’ skills abilities.
”Provinces had been given the capacity to deal with media liaison during the implementation of the restructuring process … It is the prerogative of the provincial commissioners on how they will be restructuring that media-liaison environment,” he said.
Naidoo added anyone unhappy about the restructuring had 21 days to formally lodge a complaint at the provincial offices.
”The restructuring is an operational, internal strategy and it’s going to remain internal,” he said. — Sapa