Minister in the Presidency Essop Pahad says the ”great concern” raised by print and broadcasting media over the Film and Publications Board Amendment Bill will be taken seriously.
”There will be no effort to curb media freedom,” he said, speaking at the end of debate in the National Assembly on his department’s budget vote.
Pahad criticised the Democratic Alliance’s Sandy Kalyan, who earlier told the house the Bill was unconstitutional, saying only the Constitutional Court could determine if this was so.
However, he did not think this was the main issue.
”I don’t think that this issue is a matter of whether or not the Bill is unconstitutional.
”The most serious matter is that if there is a great concern on the part of both the print and the broadcasting media, then an amendment to the present Act would be an affront to media freedom [and] then obviously we’ve got to take it seriously.”
Pahad said issues raised by South African National Editors’ Forum members at recent meetings with the government would be given the most serious consideration.
”There will be no effort to curb media freedom,” he said.
During public hearings on the Bill at Parliament earlier this month, media groups expressed strong concern about the removal of provisions from the current Act that exempt news media from seeking approval before the publication of certain material.
Should the Bill be passed in its current form, they said, the legislation would bring about pre-publication censorship and other impediments to media freedom. — Sapa