It is an interesting, albeit testing, time to be a journalist in South Africa. While we should be preoccupied with the innovations that are transforming news consumption, we are instead buffeted by criminality.
At TimesLIVE, this past week was particularly hard. Two of our journalists were hijacked and robbed in Alexandra, Johannesburg, while out on a story. They had their phones, a laptop, wallets with IDs, bank cards, drivers’ licences, and even a wedding ring taken by gun-toting cowards.
Elsewhere on social media, there’s a meltdown of sorts about how journalists should cover politicians who try to explain how Johannesburg degenerated to the point of having shacks and cardboard boxes used as shelters in deathtrap buildings, unleashing killer infernos.
In New Delhi, editors organised an online session dubbed M20 with peers from other G20 countries to discuss media freedom issues. I had an opportunity, as a member of the South African National Editors Forum (Sanef), to contribute, and said:
“Ours is a democracy turning 30 next year. We think, first, the laws to support media freedom are in place, and that’s a good start. Second, we think that the courts, which happen to be a problem in several countries, are also able to do their work free of discernible political interference — which is another plus for us.
“But we find that while the laws and the system appear to favour media freedom, the actions of particular players in our democracy point in a different direction. Sadly, we still have physical attacks that are unleashed on journalists in our country.
“One incident was in KwaZulu-Natal where a reporter Gaddafi Zulu, of The Witness, went to the Mtubatuba municipality to report on a change in administration. The IFP mayor, Mandla Zungu, who was supposed to leave office, unleashed bodyguards on the journalist. Zulu’s only fault was to interview newly appointed administrator, Dr Siya Ntuli, who had been prevented from entering the municipal premises. The mayor’s goons punched the journalist in the face, took his laptop, threw it on the ground, damaged his camera and took his notebook, which was only returned after a police case was opened.
“There are other incidents involving an attack, for example, on Estella Naicker, a journalist attached to New Castle Advertiser, who was attacked by municipal mayor Xolani Dube and his deputy Musa “Sugar” Thwala for simply covering a story about the local residents’ association members who had volunteered to fill potholes in their town. Instead of sorting out the service delivery problem, the mayor’s bodyguards attacked the journalist for publicising the work of others solving a community challenge.
“So, essentially, the picture that’s emerging from our country is one where we at Sanef would meet ministers and/or people in strategic positions to discuss our concerns, and how media freedom is impacted by the actions of certain players… And the ministers would agree with us.
“They would say, ‘No this is illegal, this type of thing should not be countenanced in a democracy, and so therefore must be condemned.’ They would pledge to help. However, their actions will prove otherwise.
“Another challenge that is a major impediment to media freedom is the rise in litigation. So, where people realise that they can’t just attack journalists, they just come up with all manner of things that try to keep journalists [from covering] court proceedings. Say, somebody gets arrested for malfeasance, or for breaking one law or the other. When they go to court, they say to the prosecutor that they are not comfortable testifying in front of journalists, and then they request that the media must be kicked out.
“The media must then appoint a lawyer, and the lawyer must launch an application that must be heard in court; and that whole process is really very costly.
“To throw in another example of an impediment to media freedom: we’ve had incidents, two if not three in the past few months, where journalists have had to write stories and hide their names. Some social movements that are agitating against foreigners would threaten the journalists and their families. It has led to a situation where two journalists at different news titles have had to leave their homes and go into hiding.
“We’ve also had to put some of our journalists through security training because of the type of work they do. It’s rough. When we say it’s a mental health issue, we don’t mean we are unaccustomed to the rough terrain that is journalism. We are saying the vagaries of Our environment today may not include apartheid police, but the terrain is no less a psychological hazard.
“From the above, a picture is emerging of a country that is embracing democratic means, a country that has the laws in place to protect journalists. A country where, putatively, we are free to write what we like, to use Steve Biko’s words. But where we walk close to the edge each day. So, on paper, we are free in South Africa to do our work, but practically it’s not yet uhuru.”
Less than 24 hours after the M20 editors' conference, our two journalists had guns pointing in their faces. They were robbed and traumatised in the middle of the country’s embodiment of inequality, Alex. We’ve opened cases but there’s no chance of getting back the expensive camera equipment.
Police minister Bheki Cele is scheduled to address the Sanef council in November. Nothing he says will ease the trauma our journalists suffered. Yet, we are free, aren’t we, to report and move about in our country.
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