Commemorating Black Wednesday with the Right2Know

The Day of Action commemorates Black Wednesday – the day on 19 October 1977 when the Apartheid State banned a number of black consciousness aligned newspapers and arrested prominent journalists.

Therefore  Right2Know deems it appropriate to reflect on media freedom in South Africa.

The government at the time declared that these publications were “publishing inflammatory material that threatened the nation’s security”.

Today, South Africa is a democracy with freedom of expression entrenched at the foundation of our constitution.

However, according to  Right2Know, growing unemployment and inequality are pushing social cohesion to its limits and again one see government acting to suppress the free flow of information in the name of ‘national security’.

Marches to take place:

Cape Town: March from Naspers/Media24 (outside CTICC) to Vodacom and Independent Newspapers, 10am. Johannesburg:  March with the SOS Coalition from Naspers/Media24 to SABC, 10am. Durban: Mass meeting, St Philomena’s, 92 Rippon Rd, 10am.

FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION

Right2Know writes the following:

Beyond the high profile threats to media freedom like the Secrecy Bill or proposed Media Appeals Tribunal, journalists in South Africa face ongoing intimidation and legal threats from government. Most recently Minister Blade Nzimande called on the Broadcasting Complaints Commission to censure a caller to SAFM who claimed the country had an “entirely corrupt Cabinet”.

Limits to journalistic freedom also come from media owners who set broad editorial policies that dictate the type of stories journalists should cover. The most outrageous example being Dr Iqbal Surve’s firing of the Cape Times editor for printing a story he did not like.While journalists are in the business of informing the public, commercial media owners are in the business of business.

This means increasing profit by cutting costs and increasing advertising. Most owners aim to cut their costs by retrenching journalists. The remaining journalists have to do even more work with less time and resources. These working environments produce less courageous journalism and more conformity to the needs of the owners and their advertisers. Most people in South Africa receive their information from the SABC.

Ongoing mismanagement and political interference at the public broadcaster is of great concern. The greatest structural threat to the SABC’s independence remains the Articles of Association that give the Minister of Communications the powers of a sole shareholder.

Government must amend the Articles to remove the powers of the Minister.

The Right2Know Campaign is committed to defending and expanding editorial freedom so journalists can fulfill their vital democratic responsibility of keeping the public informed. We call on media owners to work with journalists to adopt Editorial Charters that limit the editorial influence of management and ensure journalistic freedom of expression.