/ 3 September 2010

No bones for the media ‘dogs’

No Bones For The Media 'dogs'

The ANC Youth League invites journalists to its gatherings and then behaves as if they are gatecrashers. Mmanaledi Mataboge recounts her experience at the league’s NGC

It was interesting to practise as a journalist after 1994. The ANC was leading South Africa’s newly elected democratic government and the “movement” understood and upheld media freedom. After all, the ruling party came to lead the first inclusive government, partly as a result of support for its cause from media all over the world.

Sixteen years later, fear rules. There is a need always to be on the lookout for a harsh attack from the ruling party, sometimes justified and sometimes not, but nevertheless the norm.

The debate about the proposed media appeals tribunal is still raging and no one knows when or in what form the tribunal will be implemented.

But some leaders in the ANC have already succeeded in intimidating the media. They paint journalists as “dogs” and “agents” dividing the ANC and posing a danger to democracy.

Their attitude has spread to the lower ranks of the movement and the results are not good.

I experienced this new attitude at the ANC Youth League’s national general council (NGC).

Negative feeling about the media was unleashed and, at least twice, journalists were evicted from the media centre because their presence was deemed undesirable. The media centre was the room designed for the media to work from — you could describe it as the newsroom of the conference. Even pettier, journalists were not allowed to use the bathrooms near the plenary while it was in session because it was too close. Instead, they had to walk 300m to the closest alternative.

Some sessions of the gathering were initially open to the media, but were suddenly closed, without the courtesy of a warning.

This was not the first time this had happened.

Apparently, on instruction from Youth League president Julius Malema, the media was locked out of the league’s Eastern Cape provincial congress a fortnight ago.

Journalists were barred from covering Malema’s address, an address to which they had been “cordially invited”.

It is becoming a trend for the league to invite journalists to its gatherings and then treat them like gatecrashers.

The ANC claims it put the proposal for a media appeals tribunal on the table so that the media and the public could engage with it on how best to make the media accountable.

But the message from several ruling party leaders is not “if” South Africa will get such a tribunal one day, but “when”.

The Youth League’s NGC, arguably the most tense gathering since the 2007 Polokwane conference, treated the media heavy-handedly. Men in black suits were sent to “escort” journalists out of the media room.

It was alarming to see a group of big, unfriendly men walk into the room of journalists, asking one another: “Is it all of these people?” The next minute the journalists were told: “Sorry, we have been ordered to escort you out.”

Steven Grootes of 702 Talk Radio asked the league’s media liaison officer, Sindi Shabalala, why she could not ask us politely to leave the media room instead of calling security to “escort” us out.

She had no control over it, she said. The instruction came directly from the league’s secretary general, Vuyiswa Tulelo.

Earlier I was removed from the venue while conducting an interview with ANCYL deputy president Andile Lungisa.

A league staffer, Ontiretse Pilane, demanded that we move from the empty plenary space where we had been sitting for a few minutes before the conference opened.

Lungisa’s plea for a few minutes to finish our interview fell on deaf ears. “DP [deputy president], remember, last night we agreed that we would not allow the dogs in until we see fit?” Pilane asked.

Even though the reference to “dogs” was directed at me, Pilane also showed a great deal of disrespect towards Lungisa, indicating to which of the ANCYL factions she belongs.

In her short argument with Lungisa she kept referring to senior leaders who had instructed her to ensure I was separated from him. She was “protective of my DP”, as she put it, asking me to stop talking to him, in spite of Lungisa making it clear that the interview was about the National Youth Development Agency, which he leads.

The word “protection” could mean that there was suspicion Lungisa was sharing high-priced information with the media “dog”, who would eventually write a “divisive” article, or it could mean that the deputy president should be prevented from engaging with such “dogs” so easily.

From the day we applied for accreditation the mood towards us was negative. “Where are those bloody agents?” inquired delegates when asked to let us into the accreditation centre.

Another newspaper colleague, Fiona Forde, made it clear that the journalists were appalled at the league’s treatment of the media.

She reminded the ANCYL leadership that in attending its conferences, to which the media had been invited, it was “not appearing before a tribunal”.

There is a Setswana idiom: “Pinyana fa e re ping e a bo e utlwile tse kgolo.” Loosely translated, it means that when a child says something undesirable, the child must have heard it from his or her elders. In this case, read the Youth League for the child and the ANC for its elders.

Could it be that the ANC has neglected to tell its members what the debate about the tribunal is really about? Or does this negative attitude serve its agenda?

It will be a difficult task for the ANC to reverse an attitude that it has helped create.