Trends in threats that prevent journalists from reporting freely and new draft surveillance legislation are among concerns raised in the Campaign for Free Expression (CFE) report on the State of Free Expression in South Africa 2024.
The report was introduced at the first session of the Media Freedom Festival at the Goethe Institute in Johannesburg in the week of Black Wednesday, raising red flags for South Africa’s famously open press in which politicians and CEOs are as vigorously exposed and critiqued as each other. Clerics and entertainers are not protected, and comment is encouraged.
But there is, as the title of the report emphasises, ‘A Need for Vigilance’. Reflecting especially on journalists’ freedoms during the elections in May this year, it shows how ‘online attacks … were considered a greater threat … than the serious but isolated incidents journalists faced while working in the field’, with the CFE noting this was ‘in line’ with the findings of its previous review.
The Festival was historic this year in that Media Monitoring Africa – which has held a number of events to mark Black Wednesday in previous years – was joined by the Press Council and prominent activists the CFE and the SOS Coalition, as well as the South African National Editors’ Forum (SANEF) and the Association of Independent Publishers (AIP) for a series of panel discussions and conversations on ‘Access, Accountability and Integrity in Journalism’.
But there were other historic effects explored through the Festival, as the CFE showed in its report and as panellists discussed over the three days.
Freedom of the press is considered central to South Africa’s human rights-based Constitution, which includes it within the Bill of Rights as a response to the jailing, banning and violence against media workers and publications during apartheid. Black Wednesday draws particular reference as it commemorates 19 October 1977 when the regime cracked down on a number of newspapers and editors to deepen its power and narratives
The CFE’s report comes amid the challenges of fast-moving technologies and financial strain for the media, as well as expanding disinformation and hate speech. It makes the key observation that those issues have ‘important implications for the resilience of a free media … [and] for democracy and freedom of expression’,
CFE director Anton Harber facilitated a discussion on 15 October with panellists Dr Ismail Mahomed, a cultural activist, top media attorney Dario Milo of Webber Wentzel and former SABC news chief Phathiswa Magopeni, whose ousting from the public broadcaster in 2022 made international headlines and drew attention again to its inability to remain independent of politics.
The Press Council is hosting a panel discussion on 17 October at 6pm, entitled: ‘Back to Basics – building a media business that lasts’.
Press Council adjudicator Reg Rumney will introduce the participants and mediate the conversation which will include a discussion on challenges and innovative strategies media colleagues have employed in their newsrooms to stay relevant; practical advice for aspiring media entrepreneurs looking to carve out a unique space in the media landscape and how our panellists envision the future of their publications and the media.
The three panellists for this session are: Jillian Green (Daily Maverick’s new editor); Shirley Govender (AIP member) and Rob Rose, editor of Currency, the recently-launched online financial publication which is the newest member of the Press Council.
This 90-minute session will be preceded by a presentation by Uyanda Siyotula of the SOS Coalition.