The South African National Editor’s Forum (Sanef) has accused the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) of excluding specific media organisations from their events, and said this was “unconstitutional” and amounted to “intimidation”.
The organisation said it had learned that Daily Maverick, Scorpio, amaBhungane, and Rapport had been denied access to the party’s elective conference taking place on Friday at Nasrec.
While the party said this was due to a “lack of space”, Sanef said it was “not convinced”.
“Banning media organisations will deprive ordinary citizens of relevant information that could assist them in making informed choices on how to vote. Therefore, the real victims of this ban are the voters and citizens,” said Sanef in a tweet.
In a statement, the organisation calls on the party to “include a diversity of journalists at its elective conference”.
“We believe this decision is unconstitutional.”
The “ban” of certain publications is “diminishing citizens’ right to receive information to make informed decisions about politics – including their view of the EFF”, the statement says.
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The organisation believes the EFF is trying to “punish” specific media “for reporting on their alleged corruption and theft”, which amounts to journalists “being excluded for doing their job”.
“The EFF’s actions signal a warning to other media houses not to report critically and without fear or favour on wrongdoing. This ban is thus an act of intimidation.
“Sanef understands that journalists from these publications applied in time. In terms of amaBhungane and the Daily Maverick, instead of accreditation, they received emails that included two previous press statements issued by the party – ‘EFF is not moved by Sanef and its double standards on so-called investigative journalists’ and ‘EFF notes testimony at the Zondo commission against a journalist paid by State Security’.
“The first statement is particularly instructive as it argues that the EFF has the right to freedom of association. It states, ‘we have the right to decide who we associate with, in our events and platforms,’ ie that the EFF has the right to exclude specific media organisations from their events.
“We believe that this move infringes on the right of freedom of expression enshrined in Section 16 of our Constitution. Section 16 states that everyone has the right to freedom of expression, which includes ‘freedom of the press and other media’ and ‘freedom to receive or impart information or ideas’.”
