Alex Daigle
A South African journalist named Jovial came to speak to our class and discuss with us some of the issues that journalists face now and have faced in the past in South Africa. Jovial explained that before 1994 and the end of apartheid, the media was largely controlled by the government, which had been led by the National Party under apartheid. Furthermore, the independent media outlets had to endure a lot of intimidation and pressure to not report the truth.
The new era of South African government after 1994 opened up the opportunity for the media to tell the truth much more freely. According to Jovial, the media were able to tell the stories of the people who had finally been unshackled from the chains of apartheid. This new period of a freed media also led to an explosion of outlets in all media forms. There were more newspapers as well as more radio stations and programs. TV stations were a bit slower than the papers and radio stations to take advantage of the new media era.
Jovial also described how the media is doing today. He stated that the ANC (African National Congress) had promised many things when they began leading the government. One of those promises included a freer media. The South African media is certainly much more free than it was twenty-one years ago, but it also certainly isn’t perfect. Journalists still sometimes face intimidation from the government to not publish unfavorable stories. Jovial thinks that the state of the country’s media has a ways to progress before it is truly free.
Jovial’s discussion with our class led me to wonder how South Africa’s media compares to the US media in terms of freedom from the government. Reporters Without Borders releases a “World Press Freedom Index” each year, which helps answer my question.
For the year 2014, the US ranked 46 and South Africa ranked 42 out of the 180 listed countries. South Africa moved up ten spots on the list since last year. This is partly due to other countries dropping down on the list, including the US. Since 2013, the US dropped thirteen spots on the list due to the government’s increased efforts to find and bring to trial whistleblowers, such as Edward Snowden, and other sources of leaks. The US government has become increasingly vigilant about media outlets releasing sensitive or classified information.
South Africa’s government does not necessarily have the same issues with the media, but that doesn’t mean that issues don’t exist. The fact that South Africa is ranked 42 is indicative of government-media relation issues. For example, the press as well as human rights organizations are currently taking issue with the 2010 Protection of State Information Bill (POSIB), which was created to replace a piece of apartheid legislation that dealt with pre-publication censorship issues. The POSIB is also being referred to as the “secrecy bill.” This is because the bill clashes with the media’s view that the public has the right to have access to knowledge and information. As the Fair Observer points out, censorship issues should be kept in the apartheid past.
The government should ensure that the censorship issues of the past stay in the past. An important piece of a democratic government is ensuring that there is freedom of the press. The press, which often serves as a country’s watchdog, must be able to report the truth to citizens without fear of censorship or backlash from the government. Clearly, the media and governments of the US and South Africa need to work on these issues in order to create a truly free press.
References:
http://rsf.org/index2014/en-index2014.php
http://www.fairobserver.com/region/africa/south-african-press-freedom-under-threat/
