Zuma’s ‘crooks’ could not stop Pauw’s book from reaching wider audience
You can’t Tweet a PDF but you can Tweet a URL.
The President’s Keepers by Jacques Pauw.
That is why I became quite involved in weekend efforts to subvert attempts by government agents to block Jacques Pauw’s book, The President’s Keepers.
Let me explain. PDF stands for Portable Document Format, used for capturing and sending electronic documents. Neither Facebook nor Twitter allows for easy use of PDFs.
A PDF of Pauw’s book appeared on WhatsApp groups. On Facebook, some folk offered to send copies to anyone who supplied an e-mail address. Obviously from this you gather that PDFs can be shared via WhatsApp or by e-mail.
But these methods can be inefficient compared to Twitter. On Twitter, people were aware of the PDF
but unsure how to get hold of it. So I created a Google Drive document and shortened the URL
(Uniform Resource Locator). If you click on a URL it should take you to a website or, in this case, a particular internet file.
A shortened URL is an effective tool for mass-distributing information. So I tweeted the shortened URL with the message: “The Book You Must NOT Read. Open the link.” Although I have a modest
Twitter following of 849, the message was quickly retweeted by folks with huge audiences. What happened next was instructive. I am familiar with social media law, having interacted personally with experts.
As a journalist for more than 45 years, I also understand general media law. And I was on the winning side in a defamation case finalised in the Constitutional Court. Nothing reckless here.
To many who expressed gratitude, the intent of Saturday’s exercise was self-evident.
Not-my-president Jacob Zuma’s crooks wanted to stop Pauw’s damaging disclosures from reaching a wider audience. In the interests of free speech, we were not going to let that happen. People need to know as much as possible about the rot at the core of government.
Yet some tweeps saw only the negative. They accused us of cheating, stealing, etc. It’s tough to endure public insults. In my case, I had bought a hard copy of The President’s Keepers and promoted it in last week’s column. Theft? I think not. Misguided?
Judge for yourself. Anyway, after some persuasion, I deleted the tweet and removed the PDF so that the URL would not work. No more people could access the Google Drive document. In retrospect, especially with a journalistic background, I could perhaps have been more mindful of the downside
of distributing a Google link to The President’s Keepers.
Although Pauw generously stated on Facebook that “It’s not about the money”, he deserves proper reward for his extraordinary efforts. I don’t think anyone else could have written the book. Buy it in hard copy when new stock becomes available, or online at Amazon.com.
Good journalism is worth every cent. Exceptional journalism such as his is priceless. And those who seek to suppress Pauw don’t understand the common sense behind the observation by Roman historian Tacitus (58AD to 120 AD): “Action against writers merely enhances their standing.”
Fools.
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