The text below is a slightly edited version of the author’s remarks to the M20 Media Freedom Summit held online in Delhi on September 6, 2023 by the M20 Organising Committee, which comprises 11 editors from India and a former judge of the Supreme Court.Thank you for the opportunity to allow us to share a few thoughts and ideas about the state of the media in South Africa.Firstly, I would like to say that the laws are in place. We [established] our democracy almost about 30 years ago. The process that we’ve had to undertake as a country was that media freedom laws, or laws that encouraged media freedom needed to be put in place.First off the block was the constitution, and then other legislation that supported the work that we do. So as far as we are concerned in the media, we think that the laws are in place, and that’s a good start.Secondly, we think that the courts, which happen to be a problem in a number of areas, are also able to do their work free of political interference – which is a plus for us.But we find that while the laws and the system, as it were, appear to favour media freedom, the actions of particular players in our democracy point in a different direction. So you would have people who unleash different types of attacks, some of which Rochelle [De Kock, editor, The Herald & Weekend Post, South Africa] has dealt with in her talk at the M20.Sadly, we still have physical attacks that are unleashed on journalists in our country.One incident was in KwaZulu-Natal where somebody went to report on a change in administration between politicians, and the mayor who was supposed to leave office, who still had bodyguards, unleashed the bodyguard on the journalist. They punched the journalist in the face, they took their laptop, threw it on the ground, damaged their camera and took their notebook, which was only returned after a police case was opened.There are other incidents that have happened elsewhere, where somebody was out there reporting on volunteers who were filling potholes because the government was not doing its work. When the officials in government found out that journalists are giving attention to these other people, they went there instead of sorting out the service delivery problem, and attacked the journalists for popularising the work of somebody who’s solving a particular problem.Also read: M20: For Arab Media, State Domination and Repression Are a Fact of Life. That Has to Change.So, essentially, the picture that’s emerging from our country is one where we at the South African Editor’s Forum would call, say ministers and or people in strategic positions to our gatherings and have discussions with them about our concerns, and about how media freedom is impacted by actions of certain players…and the ministers will agree with us, and say “No this is illegal, this type of thing should not be countenanced in a democracy, and so therefore must be condemned”, and they pledge that they will help. However, their actions will prove to us that they disagree.Another challenge that I think is a major impediment to media freedom is the rise in litigation. So, where people of course 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 at no cost to themselves, say to the prosecutor that they are not comfortable testifying in front of journalists, and then the prosecutor says to the presiding officer, “The request from whoever is appearing before you, presiding officer, is that the media must be kicked out”.What that does is that the media must then appoint a lawyer, consult with that lawyer, and the lawyer must launch an application which must be heard in court; and that whole process is really very costly. For an organisation like our Editor’s Forum that relies on donations here and subscriptions from other editors, when you have several incidents like that, the costs become quite prohibitive.Perhaps, just to throw in another example of an impediment to media freedom, we’ve had incidents, I think two if not three in the last six months, where journalists have had to to write stories and hide their names. I think one of the journalists is in the Eastern Cape, hiding their names because some social movements that are agitating against foreigners and so on, would then threaten the journalists and threaten to unleash violence against them. Not only that, they then approached the family. It has led to a situation where about two journalists that we’ve released statements on, have had to leave their homes and go and hide somewhere, and where they work or report about the social movements, they remove their names or their bylines from their stories, because not doing so elevates the risk of physical attack not just on themselves, but also on their families too.So I suppose if you look at this in addition to what Rochelle has put on the table, a picture, an image of a country that is embracing democratic means, a country that that has the laws in place. Were you to have an interview with our president in any of your countries about media freedom in our country, he’ll say “No, we have laws in our country, the media is free to say whatever they want to say”.But where you look at the content, the practice, you then find that there are certain things that happen that make it very difficult for journalists to do their work. So on paper we are free in South Africa to do our work, but practically it’s not yet uhuru (Swahili noun that means ‘freedom’), so to put it. Thank you.Makhudu Sefara is SANEF’s Media Freedom Committee chairperson, South Africa.
