Media Monday - hot topics and topics that make us hopping mad! 30 May 2011

Posted: 30 May 2011 | News - Newsletter | Categories: Race, Xenophobia and Ethnicity, Democracy and Governance, Media Freedom and Performance

Here is what is on the menu this Media Monday:

  • ANC’s rushed job on the Protection of Information Bill
  • Whatever it is, just blame it on the media!
  • Spotlight on police killings
  • Post-election coverage
  • Zuma’s visit to Libya

ANC tries to pull a fast one regarding ‘Secrecy Bill’ 

After the deliberations of the contentious and controversial Protection of Information Bill, the ruling African National Congress (ANC) on Tuesday appears to be trying to rush the bill through to its final stages at all costs. The chair of the committee processing the bill, ANC MP Cecil Burgess, caught opposition MPs off guard when he announced that the committee will not discuss the input they made on the bill. Form what we have heard there was some concern about the whole discussion process taking too long and not being able to reach agreement.  Hmmm, seems a bit of a funny response from a body tasked with coming up with laws that have been well considered and debated.  What irked the opposition however was the ANC’s call for the finalisation of the bill by use of a voting process!

Burgess called on the committee members to vote on the matter and move on as there was no way they were going to reach consensus on everything regarding the bill. But how fair would the voting process be, considering that the proponents of the bill (ANC) hold the majority vote in Parliament? Voting is such a lovely game when you know you can’t lose, which, given the ANC’s dominance in parliament is not unusual.  But if that’s the way you are going to go, why even bother with the vote? Or is this a new form or upper body exercise for the ANC members?

The committee several months’ long work, working with legal advisors to harmonise the bill with the Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA), was brushed aside as the voting on the clauses of the bill began. As expected, the ANC outvoted the opposition to remove a clause that stipulated that the proposed bill should be harmonised with PAIA.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) warned that if the ANC continued in that way to vote the unconstitutional bill through, it would petition President Jacob Zuma not to sign it into law, and if that fails, it would then apply to the Constitutional Court for an order declaring all or part of an Act of Parliament is unconstitutional, or the party would turn to civil society organisations.

The DA was not the only opposition party to make public its efforts to stop ANC in its trails. Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) on Friday issued a call for popular protest to keep the Protection of Information Bill from becoming law. The civil society group Right 2 Know Campaign said on Friday that it would step up its efforts to stop ANC passing the controversial bill. The media also failed to hide its unhappiness at the bill, with the Sunday Times questioning who the real bearer of freedom is between the ruling party, pushing forward with this bill, and the opposition, who strongly condemn it.

As Media Matters, we are also not afraid to come out and say that we do not support the bill in its current form for the same reasons that critics, media, opposition parties and civil society groups have deliberated on. But it is not our duty to form and shape opinion, ours is to provide platform for you to discuss and debate anything media related, and tell us what your views and thought are. So, we will leave it to you to carry on with the debate regarding this bill, and tell us your views about it.  But better be quick, if the POI is passed in its current form you may soon be silenced.

Media taking the blame all the time, well, almost! 

Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni sent a letter to the country’s national media on 17 May 2011, in which he accused some of them, and international media such as Al-Jazeera and the BBC, of encouraging recent "walk-to-work" protests and said they deserved to be treated as "enemies". Just one of those instances where the media ends up taking the blame for…we don’t even what for, and Reporters Without Borders condemned the threatening letter. Anyway, let’s bring it closer to home.

Just a short while ago, ANC Secretary-general Gwede Mantashe reportedly alluded to the fact that ANCYL president Julius Malema played a part in his party failing to build on the minority vote in the recently held local government elections. The ANCYL came out in dismissal of reports about Mantashe's statement as "media sensations". Okay, nothing serious and anywhere close to the truth; it was just the media blowing things out of proportion.

Congress of the People (COPE) communications chief Phillip Dexter drafted a discussion document in which he has put forward his personal view on the state of his party earlier last week. The media got hold of it and reported on it, but Dexter was not happy with how the document was reported on. Dexter came out in denial of some of the claims media had attributed to him, saying “It is unfortunate that the response has been to sensationalise issues rather than to engage with the content I have raised". Oh! Another media sensation; great!

We think this is enough for you to form an opinion and tell us your views already; we doubt it is even necessary to mention the part about ANC accusing media of being main opposition in local government election, or the one about ANC leader inciting crowd to burn down a newspaper as his party’s primary battle ahead of election has been against the media.

But why is the media continuously being blamed for so many things lately? Is all this hype for a media appeals tribunal? What is media doing wrong and where does media needs to shape up? Do these sensational claims and allegations somehow hold water? What do you think?

Spotlight on police killings 

The media reported extensively on the death of slain Kraaifontein police officers, and we think, justifiably so given the seriousness of the issue of the killing of police officers. According to The Mail and Guardian report the national police commissioner Bheki Cele has been flying around the country for the last five weeks to attend funerals of members of the police killed in the line of duty. Cabinet has also expressed its alarm on the steady rise of police killings by criminal elements. Both TimesLIVE and Mail and Guardian also included statistics of police killings in South Africa.

The latest incidents sparked outrage from Cele, who came out urging the police to use maximum force in fight against criminals. It is commendable of him to make it clear that this will not be tolerated, and that he did not get up to his stalling tactics as was the case during the much publicised case of police brutality in Ficksburg which resulted in the death of one of the protesters, Andries Tatane.

Despite all the coverage that the General was quick to blame the media for focusing too much on victims of police brutality while turning a blind eye on the killing of police officers. Cele criticised media of not covering the funeral of the slain cop, and also the media for not treating the police the same way as they focus on the victims of police brutality. Nice one, so when you are under pressure instead of saying these are the issues, you blame the media.  Could media coverage of crime be better, of course, but maybe the General should focus more on reducing crime and making South Africa safer than blaming media for covering stories where the police are in the wrong. What has our media done (or not done) to deserve this, huh?

The local election that was… 

The Mail and Guardian’s (27 May 2011, p. 2) post election analysis sheds some light into how race still plays part in South Africans’ voting patterns. Main political parties on opposing ends look to tap into each other’s territory to get votes, and that is usually described in terms of the racial make up of voters in different voting locations.

Its all about the DA trying to get the black vote which is the ANC’s stronghold, and the ANC struggling to tap into the white vote which is where the DA is stronger, and the remaining vote being the Indian and Coloured votes (the even smaller minority vote) which both parties look to contest and win so as to increase their share of the vote.

Another article also focuses on ANC saying their focus in the next election will be to win the minority vote. The article quotes ANC’s Jesse Duarte saying that her party’s failure to win the minority vote accounted for the party’s overall drop in vote percentages. But Gwede Mantashe was quoted as saying that the ANC has managed to increase its coloured vote in the local government elections.

Apparently that’s what statistics show, according to Mantashe. Statistics from where, we have no idea! Maybe we are missing something: does the ballot paper have a race tick box hidden somewhere?

Anton Hammerl among Zuma’s priority topics with Gaddafi 

SABC reported this morning that President Jacob Zuma looks to discuss Anton Hammerl’s death with Libyan counterpart on his visit to the African country. Zuma reportedly said that the issue is going to be raised, first because South African officials were not told Hammerl had been murdered, instead they were lied to, and then to see if they can identify and return Hammerls remains to his family.  Curious thing about diplomacy – instead of being outraged about being lied to – they are going to “raise the matter” 

The president also said that he was hoping to discover something for the Hammerl family. This after the family pleaded with Zuma in statement which was e-mailed directly to the presidency, to ask Libya about whereabouts of Anton's remains. The family they could not rest until they give Anton a proper burial, something which Zuma set out to bring up on his visit.

We hope that the family’s request for Hammerl’s remains to be returned can be met.  We also hope that President Zuma makes it clear there are a whole lot of people who would like to “raise the issue” with the Libyan authorities that lied..