More business leaders should be raising their voices against the government’s planned media controls, editor-in-chief of Independent Newspapers Cape Chris Whitfield said on Thursday.
“Business leaders standing for press freedom could play an important role in bringing this dangerous trend against the media to a halt,” he said.
Whitfield, speaking to the Cape Town Press Club, was referring to the African National Congress’ plan for a Media Appeals Tribunal, and to the Protection of Information Bill before Parliament.
He said he had been heartened by Wednesday’s statement by Pick n Pay chairperson Gareth Ackerman “which I presume you read in the Cape Times, since we published it twice in one edition”.
Also heartening were comments this week by Business Leadership SA chairperson Bobby Godsell.
“But where are the rest of the big players?” Whitfield asked.
“For the business community, or any concerned South African, for that matter, to stand outside of this debate would be terribly short-sighted.
“My fond hope is that they will all join us … in resisting what I believe are steps that will ultimately choke the precious progress we have made in the past 20 years.”
Whitfield asked whether it was coincidence that the wave of assaults on the media was gathering intensity as the ANC-supporting newspaper New Age was poised to launch in late September.
While the Gupta family — who were behind the newspaper — might have other business objectives in launching a product that would no doubt please the government, everyone knew what had happened to other recent attempts to launch national newspapers in South Africa.
“In short, they need every bit of help they can get, and Blade Nzimande, Jackson Mthembu and cohorts are lining up to make their landing as comfortable as possible,” he said.
Nzimande is a government minister and general secretary of the South African Communist Party and Mthembu is the ANC’s national spokesperson.
Ackerman said in a statement on Wednesday that the economic freedom on which business depended flourished best when citizens were able to rely on a flow of information free from excessive government control.
“We thus have no hesitation in adding our voices to those who have expressed their misgivings about the consequences of the governing party’s proposals,” Ackerman said.
Where have all the democrats gone?
The Democratic Alliance on Thursday welcomed Cosatu secretary general Zwelinzima Vavi’s comments denouncing the draft Information Bill and its implications for media freedom and freedom of expression.
“It is encouraging to see that at least one of the leaders of the ANC’s major alliance partners recognises that the measures posed by the Bill would, among other things, prevent the government from being held to account,” DA spokesperson Lindiwe Mazibuko said.
Delivering the Ruth First memorial lecture on Wednesday, Vavi said she (Ruth First) would ask where all the other democrats had gone, after reading about the Bill that, if it went through in its current form, would make a mockery of her work as a journalist committed to fighting injustice.
“What type of society are we building?” Vavi asked.
Mazibuko said members of the government who supported the Bill needed to ask of themselves the vital questions Vavi had posed.
“[They should] and interrogate what the implications of their actions were for the constitutional freedoms cherished today.”
Mazibuko said there could be no doubt the Bill and proposed tribunal represented apartheid thinking.
“The media tribunal in particular mirrors almost exactly a number of similar proposals made the National Party, most notably for the establishment of a statutory Press Council, which would regulate and punish journalists in the same way a media tribunal would,” Mazibuko said.
“It is disheartening indeed, to see our current discourse marked by ideas once championed by an oppressive and undemocratic regime.”
Mazibuko said it was clear that the dissent seen from the Cabinet, in the form of Housing Minister Tokyo Sexwale’s denunciation of the Bill, extended far deeper, even to the governing party’s alliance members.
“We urge Mr Vavi to present his views to the next meeting of the tripartite alliance leadership and reinforce that this Bill, opposed by all true democrats, does not speak for everyone,” Mazibuko said. – Sapa