Media tribunal
I refer to the letter written by Romanius Zulu "ANC shows leadership with media tribunal" in the Sunday Tribune of 15 August. The ideas expressed in this letter must be strongly refuted, particularly the statement that ".., it would be a dereliction of duty if it allowed citizens to be savaged by the media". This is a bald statement that needs to be proved by specific examples.The media is subject to the laws of the land and the Constitution which protects the human rights of citizens, such as for example, privacy and reputation. Indeed, the converse is what will occur in actual practice, with the media appeal tribunal, which, if set up, will savage the right to freedom of the expression in particular media freedom.
The proposal for a media tribunal is disturbing as far as freedom of the press is concerned since it is proposed that this tribunal should on its own account have the power to imprison, fine and dismiss journalists. This will have a chilling effect on the media as a whole and bring about self censorship. The reason advanced for the vesting of such draconian powers in the tribunal is that the press ombudsman is perceived to be inadequate and the alternative opportunity for redress, the legal system, is not affordable to most South Africans.
Even if the press ombudsman is inadequate because it is understaffed and underfunded, this is most certainly no justification for establishing what is in effect a draconian inquisitorial media tribunal aimed, inter alia, at deterring cogent and embarrassing criticism of the ministers and other officials of ruling ANC government.
The press is most certainly not perfect and it can make mistakes and is indeed capable of abusing media freedom. In this regard internal remedies should be used. If these are ineffective and inadequate they can be greatly improved by funding and resourcing the bodies involved, such as the press ombudsman. The problem cannot be solved in a way that makes profound inroads into the fundamental right of media freedom, in a manner that a totalitarian regime would address the problem. The media tribunal in its proposed form would immeasurably impoverish the working of our democratic system, for which transparency and media freedom are essential.
Media freedom is indeed a seminal right, and must be nurtured and cherished, no matter who employs it, and no matter how distasteful or uncomfortable the message. The true beneficiaries of the right to free press are not essentially media organisations, but the public at large, who have a right to be informed in order to participate in democratic discourse and to take political decisions on the basis of all the relevant information available.
Although the Bill of Rights in the Constitution, contains no express hierarchy of rights, nevertheless, freedom of expression and media freedom in particular, is a cornerstone of an authentic democracy since it is the indispensable condition of nearly every other form of freedom, without which other freedoms would not long endure and therefore it must be ranked as a very important right.
Cllr George Devenish (DA, Durban).
17th August 2010
