Amendment bill is unconstitutional – SANEF

The delegation pointed out that the self-regulatory mechanism of the Press Council had been strengthened to ensure stricter adherence to the press's code of conduct and to bring members of the public into the process so that they could influence the operation and understanding of public concerns about issues.

SANEF's deputy chairperson Henry Jeffreys, who is editor of Die Burger, said in a press statement that SANEF had serious concerns about the bill even after the amendments that were made following the process in the National Assembly.

Continued the statement, “The press joined the common cause in the country's desire to create an environment in which all citizens lived a decent life and children were protected and nourished. In regard to the main aims of the legislation ‘we need to emphasise that we share Government's concerns about the predatory exploitation of children. We are particularly committed to fight the sexual exploitation of children and the exposure of children to adult or pornographic material.'''

Four main concerns

In considering the bill against this background, SANEF has four main concerns about the legislation. These centre on the wide application of the bill; the suppression of constitutionally protected speech; the effects of the clauses dealing with classification of publications which were not exempted from this section of the bill and the classifications resulting in banning publications or restrictions on distribution and the criminal sanctions in the bill.

“In regard to the wide application of the Bill, there were a number of foreign, community, consumer, trade, technical and professional magazines which were not covered by the exemption granted to members of the Newspaper Association of SA (NASA). A clause in the Bill was ‘overboard in application' and in many instances intrude on speech which is constitutionally protected. This would require these publications which were not exempted having to submit articles or reports dealing with inter alia HIV/Aids education, declarations of war, violent demonstrations, violent incidents or civil unrest and reports on public utterances of ordinary persons, religious leaders or even terrorist organisations that could invoke hatred,” said the statement.

Jeffreys pointed out that there were no criminal sanctions in the present Films and Publications Act but these would now be applied to both NASA members and non-members under clauses 24A and 24B, which deal with failure to report information to the police or even one's suspicions.

City Press editor Mathatha Tsedu, a former chairman of SANEF and a member of the delegation, said that the advances in technology brought new challenges of ensuring particularly that children did not have easy access to adult content. In the battle to achieve this, the industry was an ally, not an adversary out to make a quick buck on the back of the safety and interests of our children.

"Government cannot deal with these challenges by acting unconstitutionally, simply because the issue at stake is extremely important. This is the time to give the development of a truly open society, based on respect for our constitution and the rights enshrined therein, to germinate,'' he said, adding that this would be done by accepting the bona fides of an industry that had served this country well through self regulation, and not the imposition of restrictions based on patently unconstitutional stipulations.

"The overall import of what we are saying here is that the industry takes public concerns seriously. The strengthening of the Press Council is designed to not only ensure stricter adherence to the code of conduct, but to bring members of the public into the fold so they can influence the operation and understanding of public concerns.”

Press Council workings

The press ombudsman Joe Thloloe described the workings of the Press Council and how over a period of 10 years it had performed an exacting task well in accordance with established principles governing such self-regulatory mechanisms throughout the world and in a way that enabled press freedom to flourish.

SANEF Media Freedom Committee chairman Raymond Louw, publisher of Southern Africa Report, said one way to overcome the classification difficulty was to enlarge the exemption, now confined to members of NASA, to include all print publications that subscribed to the codes and rules of the Press Council.

However, while this may solve the classification problems the other unconstitutional defects would not be solved. He urged that all print media which subscribed to the Press Council should be exempted totally from the act. The current act exempts NASA members.