The African National Congress (ANC) said on Tuesday its view on establishing a media tribunal was ”shifting”.
Spokesperson Jessie Duarte said it was ”not the time or place for a tribunal”.
Duarte was speaking at a debate on political party’s media strategies ahead of the upcoming national elections.
The ANC had proposed a media tribunal at its Polokwane conference in December 2007.
Duarte said the proposal was ”still on the table”, but that views about the setting up of a media tribunal were shifting.
The party was, however, still going ahead with earlier proposals to set up an ANC newspaper and had started the process with newsletters aimed at particular communities.
It was envisaged that the tribunal could serve as an ”appeal division” whereby members of the public could submit complaints against the media. The tribunal would be ”against self-regulation” in the media.
The ANC discussion document on the media, titled Communications and the Battle of Ideas, included a proposal to investigate self-regulation in the media, and whether remedial measures would be required to safeguard and promote the rights of all South Africans.
The document also called on the government to increase its funding of the public broadcaster as the current model compromises its public-service mandate.
It also said that the media should foster and develop social cohesion and promote the building of consensus on a common set of values, and support national unity and pride as a South African nation.
Duarte said on Tuesday that the media in South Africa was historically hostile towards the ANC and still remained so.
She said the ANC would like to see a critical media, but not a hostile one.
Democratic Alliance chief executive Ryan Coetzee said the media was not a coherent entity with a particular agenda, rather journalists were individuals who expressed different views.
JJ Tabane from the Congress of the People (Cope) agreed that all media could not be ”painted with the same brush”. — Sapa