Police National Commissioner General Bheki Cele did not oppose a call for the Independent Complaints Directorate to investigate the treatment of the Sunday Times journalist arrested last week, the SA National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) said on Tuesday.
“Cele was unable to discuss Mzilikazi wa Afrika’s arrest because the matter is sub judice,” said Sanef deputy chairperson Mary Papayya.
Cele met with Sanef in Auckland Park on Tuesday at his request.
The agenda was dominated by Wa Afrika’s arrest and the treatment of the media by the police.
Describing the discussions as frank and robust, Papayya said Sanef had “made it clear we were not there to be friends, but it was about work”.
Sanef told Cele that the media was shocked at Wa Afrika’s arrest and the subsequent attempt by police to prevent photographers from taking pictures of the incident.
“We raised our concerns about the general treatment of Wa Afrika, to which Cele said he was not opposed to other institutions, like the Independent Complaints Directorate, investigating the matter.”
Cele promised that police would respect the law and that anyone arrested would be treated with dignity.
“In terms of police not understanding the law and preventing journalists from doing their work, a Sanef-[SA Police Services] task team was set up to look at transgressions in the media.
“It will come up with a document stipulating what should happen in a crime scene … What journalists can do in a crime scene.”
When Cele was asked what would happen if there were future arrests similar to Wa Afrika’s, he said he hoped there would not be any future arrests.
“He hoped that issues would be dealt with in an amicable way,” said Papayya.
She said police were concerned about who they could go to when they were unhappy with the media.
“They were told to go straight to the editor-in-chief of that particular newspaper, and if still aggrieved, to take their matters to the press ombudsman.”
Papayya said Cele had promised that the police would cooperate with the media in future, after both parties had accepted they were not above the law. They had agreed to continue to hold talks.
Wa Afrika was arrested in Rosebank, Johannesburg, on Wednesday.
The case against him was dropped on Thursday, but he was not released, and the case was reinstated later that day.
His lawyers successfully applied for his release in an urgent application in the High Court in Pretoria on Thursday night.
Sanef has criticised the “thuggish behaviour reminiscent of the apartheid state” meted out to Wa Afrika and has said that some of it was likely to be unconstitutional and in breach of police regulations.
ANC stands firm on tribunal
Meanwhile, the African National Congress on Tuesday insisted that it did not want to curtail press freedom with a proposed Media Appeals Tribunal, but warned that print media did not seem committed to transformation.
“It’s us who can gloat and say the freedom you enjoy is as a result of what we fought for, led by the ANC … We are not about to reverse our legacy in that area,” ANC national spokesperson Jackson Mthembu told editors and journalists in Johannesburg.
But the media should not deny the ANC the right to “put a view to the public”.
“Does that not amount to messing with our freedom of expression as the ANC?” asked Mthembu.
“There’s a lot of dishonesty … you can’t enter an argument by saying stop an argument.”
He was briefing the media about the ANC’s discussion document to set up a tribunal for the print media, saying the current self-regulatory system of the press ombudsman did not allow for punitive measures against newspapers.
“You are defenders of your space,” Mthembu said to critical questions from members of the media.
He said the tribunal would be set up to “assist” editors and that the ANC valued media freedom.
“Which part [of the proposal] is unconstitutional? Which part wants to cap media freedom? None of our commas, none of our sentences, none of our wording has that … it would not be allowed in South Africa. We are the people who fought for the freedom you enjoy today … some of us died for it. We have put our view before you, and that is our right,” he added.
Media ownership
Mthembu said the discussion document did not only revolve around the proposed tribunal, but also looked at media ownership.
“Print media does not have, nor is in a process of developing, a transformational charter, despite the regrettable degree of transformation.”
He said Media24 had a 15% historically disadvantaged individual (HDI) ownership and Avusa 25,5%.
“Caxton and Independent Newspapers have no HDI participation,” said Mthembu.
The ANC proposed the Competition Commission “investigate the anti-competitive dynamics in the print-media value chain, that is paper, printing, publishing, distribution and advertising”.
He tried to explain why the ANC believed a Media Appeals Tribunal was necessary to regulate the media, saying it would be very similar to how broadcast media was regulated by the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa (Icasa).
“One thing the ANC is not prepared to do, is to limit the freedom that our Constitution gives to the press … so this is nothing new. It is something that has already been introduced in the broadcasting industry. – Sapa