The ANC has made public its plans for the future of South African media in a discussion paper prepared for the ANC National General Council 2010, to be held 20 – 24 September in Durban. The discussion paper makes it quite clear how the ANC views the media – it unashamedly vilifies journalists as dishonest scoundrels – and rather disconcertingly notes the success of the apartheid regime in staying in power through censorship and media control.
The discussion paper claims “fractions” of the media still adopt an “anti-transformation, anti-development and anti-ANC stance”. Questioning ANC policies, or more likely aspects on the implementation of those policies, remain unwelcome. Dissenting voices gets tagged with the “anti-transformation and anti-development” label, an overused and now meaningless smear tactic of politicians unable to adapt their language to the reality of a post-apartheid society.
As an example of successful “independent broadcasting regulation”, the ANC holds forth the SABC. It positions the near-bankrupt state broadcaster as an example of a “competitive broadcast industry forged in the crucible of the struggle against apartheid control, repression and censorship”.
This is the same organisation rocked by a ‘blacklisting’ scandal in 2006 when then news and current affairs MD Snuki Zikalala was caught out banning then Business Day political editor Karima Brown (who recently made the news when she joined the soon-to-be launched pro-ANC newspaper The New Age) from the broadcaster, as well as for taking analyst Aubrey Matshiqi off-air.
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