The cock that crows in the morning belongs to one household, but his voice is the property of the neighbourhood. This proverb, cited by the author Chinua Achebe, applies perfectly to the press. For South Africa right now, it resonates with the way that our elected “neighbourhood” officials feel themselves to be justified in trying to regulate the rooster. Private property (the newspapers) and unfettered free speech have a public character, fooling the ruling party into feeling that it is entitled to intrude into those spaces. Worse, with the Protection of Information and the Media Appeals Tribunal, the ANC seems to want to shut the bird up entirely. The party evidently regards raucous crowing as an unwelcome noise that disturbs the public and distracts from their projects. Yet its control-oriented steps have unleashed an even greater cacophony. So where to from here for the ruling party?[more]

Let us not pretend that state control of the media is something new to the region, or that South Africa has a history of defending press freedom and shouting down the villains, writes GEOFF HILL. If a government nationalised the press or introduced the death penalty for writers who criticised the ruling party, there’d be an outcry. Correct? Well not always. At least not in South Africa. Let me explain. In 1975, the MPLA government in Angola, which had wrested independence from Portugal a year earlier, took control of the press and made it a capital offence for journalists to “commit crimes against the revolution”, or endanger the good name of the state. The African National Congress (ANC) in exile was dependent on the charity of regional leaders, so would have found it hard to comment, though given their current stance on Zimbabwe, and solidarity with oppressive regimes like Cuba or Libya, it is doubtful they would have said much anyway.[more]

Pinch me, somebody! Are the unprecedented protests by newspaper editors unnecessary hysteria? Is the press watchdog crying wolf? How could relationships crash so quickly from the “Team South Africa” ethos of the World Cup? Earlier this year, City Press newspaper discerned – in regard to the threats by Julius Malema and his bullyboys – that journalism in this country is not for sissies. But when the same paper stood its ground and exposed Malema as a liar, and when the ANC itself reprimanded the proto-fascist for BBC-bashing, the bad stuff seemed to have been a temporary cloud darkening the sky. Instead, things really seem to have become much worse for press freedom. Daylight has been replaced by twilight.[more]