Sunday Times editor Mondli Makhanya hailed the Johannesburg High Court ruling in the newspaper’s case against Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang as ”an important victory for press freedom”.
He said in a statement on Thursday that the newspaper had already voluntarily handed over a copy of Tshabalala-Msimang’s medical files pertaining to her 2005 stay in Cape Town Medi-Clinic to the hospital.
”We respect the judge’s ruling that Health Minister Manto Tshabalala-Msimang’s records be returned to the Cape Town Medi-Clinic,” he said.
”We had already voluntarily handed over a copy to Medi-Clinic.”
Makhanya also said the newspaper would continue with its investigations.
”The Sunday Times believes that this story is of utmost public interest and, like the rest of the South African media, we will continue with our investigations.
”In doing so we will adhere [to] the highest journalistic and ethical standards.”
Makhanya also welcomed Judge Mahomed Jajbhay’s decision not to order the newspaper to destroy or hand over its notebooks and for declining to restrain it from publishing anything further pertaining to Tshabalala-Msimang’s health.
He went on to say that much of the information contained in the coverage was already in the public domain.
”Here, the information although unlawfully obtained went beyond being simply interesting to the public; there was in fact a pressing need for the public to be informed about the information contained in the medical records of the first applicant [Tshabalala-Msimang].
”The disclosure by the Sunday Times did not mislead the public about an issue which the public has a genuine concern.”
Makhanya added that the publication of the unlawfully obtained controversial information ”was capable of contributing to a debate in our democratic society relating to a politician in the exercise of her functions”.
”We maintain that the stories published by [the] Sunday Times over recent weeks have been 200% accurate and note that the minister has not sought to challenge their factuality in any detail.”
‘Delighted’
Health Department spokesperson Sibani Mngadi said after the proceedings that the minister was away in Brazzaville, Congo, but had been informed of the order.
Tshabalala-Msimang was ”delighted”, he said.
”We believe the government was vindicated.”
”The medical records in themselves must be deleted,” according to the 40-page judgement, which was not read during the brief court proceedings.
The Sunday Times was ordered to pay costs in the court case. This decision was based on the newspaper’s knowledge of the minister’s medical reports having been unlawfully obtained.
”They acted in contravention of the National Health Act by making unauthorised copies,” read the judgement. ”This sort of conduct cannot be condoned.”
Jajbhay added that journalists should be cautious when using information that was tainted with criminal activity.
”There is an ethical obligation on journalists in matters such as the present to ascertain whether the document that they are armed with has in fact been legally obtained,” he wrote.
Jajbhay’s judgement described the case as being difficult.
”When two competing constitutional rights come into conflict, one right must suffer.”
‘Mysterious concept’
On the argument presented by the Sunday Times of the story being in sufficient public interest, Jajbhay said: ”Here we are dealing with a person who enjoys a very high position in the eyes of the public and it is the very same public that craves attention in respect of the information that is in the hands of the Sunday Times.”
On the other hand, the judgement also read that Tshabalala-Msimang and any other patient’s right to privacy was paramount.
”We assert the value of privacy because of our constitutional understanding of what it means to be a human being.”
On press freedom, the judgment noted that no unreasonable restraint should be placed on the press as to what they could publish.
He further noted that public interest was a ”mysterious concept” and that there was often little, if any, consensus on what constituted public interest.
It is ”like a battered piece of string charged with elasticity, impossible to measure or weigh”.
”The concept changes with the dawn of each new day, tempered by the facts of each case.”
The South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) welcomed the ruling. It believed the judge’s order that copies of the medical records be returned was to be expected.
However, the judge’s acceptance of the Sunday Times‘s defence that it acted in the public interest in divulging the records’ contents is welcomed because it upholds an important journalistic principle in support of press freedom, Sanef said in a statement.
”The documents reflected on the allegedly abusive conduct of the health minister while she was in hospital and on her alleged drinking before and after undergoing a liver transplant, all matters of public interest,” Sanef said. ”The important ruling by the judge is that publication of that information was entirely legitimate and in the public interest in the light of the health minister being a public figure.
Vendetta
Mngadi said the minister and all people using health facilities could do so knowing that their rights were looked after.
”I hope Mondli Makhanya is swallowing his words. At first he said he was 200% correct and now after the court has ruled … he must even pay the costs of the legal process.”
He also said he believed there was a vendetta against Tshabalala-Msimang.
”I do believe there was a vendetta and certain things were used to settle a political agenda. People are aggrieved about political decisions and are taking this path to attack.” – Sapa