Fight for Democracy
Fight for Democracy
The ANC and the Media in South Africa
GLENDA DANIELS
Published in South Africa by:
Wits University Press
1 Jan Smuts Avenue
Johannesburg
Copyright © Glenda Daniels 2012
First published 2012
ISBN 978-1-86814-568-3
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the written permission of the publisher, except in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright Act, Act 98 of 1978.
Edited by Monica Seeber
Cover design and layout by Hothouse South Africa
Printed and bound by Creda Communications
CONTENTS
1. INTRODUCTION: The ANC and the media post-apartheid
2. The relationship between the media and democracy
3. The media’s challenges: legislation and commercial imperatives
4. Race and the media
5. Freedom of expression: the case of Zapiro
6. Social fantasy: the ANC’s gaze and the media appeals tribunal
7. The Sunday Times versus the health minister
8. What is developmental journalism?
9. Concluding reflections: where is democracy headed?
EPILOGUE
APENDICES
REFERENCES
INDEX
Dedication
This book is dedicated to journalists
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
This book came out of two processes: first, my passionate attachment to press freedom and then the indulgence of this attachment in a huge task – a thesis on the role of the media in a democracy, unraveling the politics between the media, the state and the ANC. The essence of that thesis has been distilled in this book. I thank my supervisor, Professor Sheila Meintjes, for her consistent encouragement, her warm support, and for creating and generously hosting in her home in Norwood – for about a year, in 2009 – a wonderful group. We called ourselves the Politics and Media Discussion Group.
This group met once a month and we took turns to present papers. We debated issues related to media and democracy while eating croissants and muffins from fine china. The group consisted of the Wits Journalism veterans, Professor Anton Harber, Professor Franz Kruger and Lesley Cowling; the head of the School of Communications at the University of Johannesburg, Professor Nathalie Hyde-Clarke; the Open Society Initiative of Southern Africa media and ICT manager, Dr Dumisani Moyo; the Save Public Broadcaster Campaign coordinator, Kate Skinner; Professor Jane Duncan from Rhodes University; Sheila and me.
I am indebted to and respectful of my MA supervisor Peter Hudson for introducing me to the world of political philosophy. He was generous with his time, his ideas, his reading and commenting and his lending of books. My interest in political philosophy began with him in my undergraduate years at Wits in the 1980s. His intellectual rigour was such an inspiration that I returned to do an MA with him in 2006. It was a great experience, learning with some life experience behind one.
To the colleagues who gave their time enthusiastically to be interviewed, to put across the point of view of journalism, particularly Mondli Makhanya, Justice Malala, Abdul Milazi, Hopewell Radebe and Rehana Rossouw – thank you. But there were also many others who I interviewed who gave their time generously.
I acknowledge the Swiss-South Africa Joint Research Programme (SSAJRP) for its financial support in the last two years of the PhD. My research was located within the SSAJRP ‘Safeguarding Democracy: Contests of Memory and Heritage’ project. It was a great interdisciplinary opportunity for all of us in the team to share ideas related to democracy, memory, history and philosophy with our Swiss partners at Basel University. I also received the National Research Foundation prestigious scholarship for three years, 2008-2010, for which I am grateful.
I would also like to mention two important organisations in my recent development. First is the M&G Centre for Investigative Journalism (amaBhun-gane, or dung beetles, who dig up dirt) where I spent just over a year, 20112012, as advocacy coordinator, before I joined Wits Journalism. AmaB afforded me a good opportunity to learn about access to information problems, the Protection of State Information Bill (Secrecy Bill) and to write a fair number of comment and analysis pieces about it. During that period I also served on the Right2Know national and regional structures and so personally witnessed and experienced the impact that civil society pressure and activism can bring to bear upon draconian impediments to democracy, such as the Secrecy Bill. The May 2012 proposed amendments by the ANC, or partial backing down from the draconian nature of the bill, were a testament to the success story of civil society formation, coalitions, and activism – even though the State Security Agency rejected these amendments in June 2012. A personal boon from R2K activism has been the media freedom friendships I formed with Kate Skinner and Julie Reid.
For diligent reading and commenting thank you to my friend Heidi Brooks. To the Wits University Press team, Veronica Klipp, Roshan Cader, Melanie Pequeux – what a treat to work with you. And copy editor Monica Seeber, from whom I have learned such a lot in a short space of time, especially how to be unsentimental about deleting material that’s not necessary, for instance, deep philosophy that can often do more confounding than illuminating – thank you. Hothouse South Africa, especially Lisa Platt, did a creative job in translating words into visuals for the design and layout.
To my friends Penny, Tendayi, Amber and Diane your support continues to inspire. It is good also to have a large family who encourage academe, too many to mention all by name but especially Reynaud, Julian, Desiree, Vivienne and Allan. Last, but most importantly, thank you to dear Nigel for your optimistic disposition, wise counsel and consistent encouragement to fight to maintain a free press, freedom of expression and access to information. Now Alex and Ash follow that example and lend the same kind of support to the same issues.
PREFACE
I undertook this work from the position of a practicing journalist. It is a work of advocacy that grew out of my 2010 PhD thesis in the Department of Political Studies, University of the Witwatersrand. I have also added my own experiences from time to time. The particular standpoint ab initio is in support of a press free from party political interference and control. I have always worked in the print media, and therefore I do not, and cannot, hide under an impossible