FREEDOM of expression, of which media freedom is an important dimension, is one of the fundamental rights South Africans secured through the democratic political revolution of 1994.
After more than 150 years of hard-fought struggles, entailing the loss of thousands of lives, imprisonment, torture and assassination, these rights should be cherished and defended by us all, citizens and government alike.
Historically, the struggle for media freedom and against colonialism and racial oppression in South Africa have been integrally connected. That link is encapsulated in the person and the struggles of Thomas Pringle, who arrived in South Africa as an immigrant from Britain in 1820.
Though among the 1820 settlers Pringle did not live in the eastern Cape, but settled in Cape Town where, together with John Fairbairn, he established the South African Journal and the South African Commercial Advertiser.
Like many editors who followed him, Pringle soon discovered the limits to freedom of expression in the colonies.
A staunch abolitionist, Pringle opposed slavery at the Cape and agitated against the colonial government's excesses against the indigenous people.
His newspapers were suppressed in 1827. Pringle returned to Britain where he continued his abolitionist activities, becoming secretary of the Anti-Slavery Society that year.
Given this pedigree, it was an unavoidable consequence that the struggle for freedom of expression would invariably be refracted through the struggle for racial equality and justice and vice versa.
King Williams Town, the site of the first newspaper in an indigenous language, is located among the hills and valleys where one hundred years of wars, - euphemistically called called Frontier Wars, but actually Wars of Dispossession, were waged.
John Tengo Jabavu, the father of African journalism in South Africa, established Imvo Zabantsundu in 1884. Through Imvo he became one of the leading spokesmen for African aspirations during the late 19th century.
The printing press produced an information revolution in every part of the world where it was introduced and the newspaper was the most effective means of mass communication before the advent of radio. Beyond being couriers of information, newspapers were conceived as instruments for sharing political opinion.
Imvo and the newspapers and journals that followed it, were the well-springs of what grew into an African nationalist intellectual political tradition.
The relationship between media freedom and the struggle for national liberation thus became more firmly entrenched, emphasised by the repressive attempts of both colonial and post-Union governments.
This national intellectual tradition was the brainchild of a growing body of Christian converts living and working among their traditionalist brethren in the eastern Cape during the second half of the 19th century.
The newspapers and journals they pioneered, usually published in an African language and English, established a tradition of black journalism that remains firmly committed to the democratic ideals they had embraced.
The literary tradition among the Africans began with the translation and publication of what many consider the pre-eminent Christian religious allegory in the English language: John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, translated into Xhosa by the Reverend Tiyo Soga in 1866.
John Bunyan participated in the English Revolution of 1640 as a fighter in Cromwell's army. That revolution ended the "divine right of kings" in Britain and established the supremacy of parliament.
After the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Bunyan was repeatedly arrested and imprisoned at the behest of the High Church of England for publishing his Puritan views.
Bunyan's own battles against all manner of censorship was thus integrated into the literary tradition that emerged among African writers at its birth.
It was to become a recurring theme in their own lived experience, especially for those engaged in journalism.
The influence of the media in societies is best illustrated by negative examples.
Faced with the international scandal that the murder of Steve Biko became, the apartheid regime's first recourse was to try and conceal the truth.
The shameless lies told during the inquest were crowned with the brazen verdict that no one was responsible for his death.
The media, and especially its oldest component, the press, played a role in bringing about a democratic order in this country.
A number of outstanding South African journalists, including the late Percy Gqoboza, Donald Woods and Anthony Heard, received laurels from the international community.
Brian Bunting, Govan Mbeki and Joe Gqabi, all of whom were associated with the serially banned Guardian, each used their pens in the struggle against apartheid.
But the role of the South African media has not been consistently honourable.
While Pringle earned the wrath of the colonial government during the 19th century, there were other journalists and editors who served as the cheerleaders of aggression against independent African kingdoms.
During the 20th century, the democratic voices of those who opposed racism were often drowned out by the proto-fascist propaganda that flowed from the pens of the likes of Hendrik Verwoerd.
Before the mid-1950s the South African commercial papers rarely referred to an African as "Mr" or "Miss".
As recently as the 1980s, wellknown South African editors felt no compunction about virtually congratulating the hired assassins who blinded Judge Albie Sachs in one eye and blew off his right arm.
The US media, which some consider the freest in the world, enthusiastically incited the American public to a criminal war based on a tissue of lies in 2003.
An awesome responsibility devolves on the media because its influence can be benevolent or malevolent.
While we should all pride ourselves in our collective achievement of media freedom, we cannot shut our eyes to its uses and abuses in the past.
Yes, the truth is very powerful, yet it is also extremely elusive. No single person, no body of opinion, no political doctrine, no religious doctrine can claim a monopoly on truth.
Centuries of human experience demonstrate that the truth can be arrived at only through the untrammelled contest among differing opinions, in which as many points of view as possible are given a fair and equal hearing.
Laws and practices that repress freedom of expression have done society a disservice.
Censorship, the suppression of information and the repression of those who bring us information, have invariably been the devices employed by falsehood.
Securing the right of the citizen to express whatever opinion he/she subscribes to, as long as the exercise of that right does not harm others, remains among the objectives all South African democrats should pursue.
The removal from our statute books of the laws, ordinances, regulations and administrative measures that abridged the rights of South African citizens to receive and to transmit information, which repress the freedom of the media to publish, are among the finest fruits of the democratic transformation that the ANC led and initiated.
These critical ingredients of our democratic culture still need nurturing. It is the responsibility of the ANC, in the first instance, to continue striving for, nurturing and defending these rights.
Freedom of the press is among the oldest and most valued of the freedoms for which many South Africans have given their lives.
The pioneers of the African language press were among the founders of the ANC. They include our first president, Dr John Langalibalele Dube, the distinguished educator who founded Ohlange Institute and the newspaper, Ilanga lase Natal; that giant among African men of letters, Solomon Plaatje, founder/editor of Koeranta eaBatswana and our first secretary-general.
We can also proudly recall the names of two courageous ANC militants, Joe Gqabi and Ruth First, whose murders by agents of the apartheid regime is still shrouded in mystery and clouded by half-truths despite the TRC.
These were journalists in the tradition of the founders of the ANC.
It would be a slight to their memory and their work if our actions today proved us unworthy of their sacrifice.
The ANC has a long track record of commitment to media freedom. In defending a free media, we are defending the ANC's own rich heritage, the heritage bequeathed to us by those 19th century pioneers.
The value we place on a free, independent and outspoken press in democratic South Africa cannot be overstated.
A free press can temper the appetite of any government to amass power at the expense of the citizen. A free press can be the vigilant watchdog of the public interest against the temptations to abuse power.
This underscores the need for the South African media to become more representative of the diversity and variety of viewpoints among our people.
In a democratic dispensation in a pluralist society like ours there will be ongoing contestation among its various components.
Tension between those tasked with governing and the media, as purveyors of information and opinion, is one of the inevitable features of a democracy.
It is pointless to deny the existence of this tension and it is short-sighted to suggest that it is indicative of a temptation to censor.
I cannot imagine an ANC government that is fearful of criticism.
The ANC has not and shall not wilt under criticism or close scrutiny. Robust debate can only help us to deepen our democracy. But, debate is a two-way street, which contributes to the health of a democracy by calling attention to those of our actions and omissions which do not measure up to our people's expectations.
Former president Nelson Mandela, addressing the International Press Union in March 1994, said: "If the people of South Africa elect us to office, we firmly undertake that an ANC government will strive for an open society in which vigorous debate is encouraged through a free press and other media ..."
The challenge today is for the ANC to live up to that undertaking.
- The original, unedited version will appear in ANC Today. The writer is the former arts and culture minister.
Truth or Censorship
FREEDOM of expression, of which media freedom is an important dimension, is one of the fundamental rights South Africans secured through the democratic political revolution of 1994.
After more than 150 years of hard-fought struggles, entailing the loss of thousands of lives, imprisonment, torture and assassination, these rights should be cherished and defended by us all, citizens and government alike.
Historically, the struggle for media freedom and against colonialism and racial oppression in South Africa have been integrally connected. That link is encapsulated in the person and the struggles of Thomas Pringle, who arrived in South Africa as an immigrant from Britain in 1820.
Though among the 1820 settlers Pringle did not live in the eastern Cape, but settled in Cape Town where, together with John Fairbairn, he established the South African Journal and the South African Commercial Advertiser.
Like many editors who followed him, Pringle soon discovered the limits to freedom of expression in the colonies.
A staunch abolitionist, Pringle opposed slavery at the Cape and agitated against the colonial government's excesses against the indigenous people.
His newspapers were suppressed in 1827. Pringle returned to Britain where he continued his abolitionist activities, becoming secretary of the Anti-Slavery Society that year.
Given this pedigree, it was an unavoidable consequence that the struggle for freedom of expression would invariably be refracted through the struggle for racial equality and justice and vice versa.
King Williams Town, the site of the first newspaper in an indigenous language, is located among the hills and valleys where one hundred years of wars, - euphemistically called called Frontier Wars, but actually Wars of Dispossession, were waged.
John Tengo Jabavu, the father of African journalism in South Africa, established Imvo Zabantsundu in 1884. Through Imvo he became one of the leading spokesmen for African aspirations during the late 19th century.
The printing press produced an information revolution in every part of the world where it was introduced and the newspaper was the most effective means of mass communication before the advent of radio. Beyond being couriers of information, newspapers were conceived as instruments for sharing political opinion.
Imvo and the newspapers and journals that followed it, were the well-springs of what grew into an African nationalist intellectual political tradition.
The relationship between media freedom and the struggle for national liberation thus became more firmly entrenched, emphasised by the repressive attempts of both colonial and post-Union governments.
This national intellectual tradition was the brainchild of a growing body of Christian converts living and working among their traditionalist brethren in the eastern Cape during the second half of the 19th century.
The newspapers and journals they pioneered, usually published in an African language and English, established a tradition of black journalism that remains firmly committed to the democratic ideals they had embraced.
The literary tradition among the Africans began with the translation and publication of what many consider the pre-eminent Christian religious allegory in the English language: John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress, translated into Xhosa by the Reverend Tiyo Soga in 1866.
John Bunyan participated in the English Revolution of 1640 as a fighter in Cromwell's army. That revolution ended the "divine right of kings" in Britain and established the supremacy of parliament.
After the restoration of the monarchy in 1660, Bunyan was repeatedly arrested and imprisoned at the behest of the High Church of England for publishing his Puritan views.
Bunyan's own battles against all manner of censorship was thus integrated into the literary tradition that emerged among African writers at its birth.
It was to become a recurring theme in their own lived experience, especially for those engaged in journalism.
The influence of the media in societies is best illustrated by negative examples.
Faced with the international scandal that the murder of Steve Biko became, the apartheid regime's first recourse was to try and conceal the truth.
The shameless lies told during the inquest were crowned with the brazen verdict that no one was responsible for his death.
The media, and especially its oldest component, the press, played a role in bringing about a democratic order in this country.
A number of outstanding South African journalists, including the late Percy Gqoboza, Donald Woods and Anthony Heard, received laurels from the international community.
Brian Bunting, Govan Mbeki and Joe Gqabi, all of whom were associated with the serially banned Guardian, each used their pens in the struggle against apartheid.
But the role of the South African media has not been consistently honourable.
While Pringle earned the wrath of the colonial government during the 19th century, there were other journalists and editors who served as the cheerleaders of aggression against independent African kingdoms.
During the 20th century, the democratic voices of those who opposed racism were often drowned out by the proto-fascist propaganda that flowed from the pens of the likes of Hendrik Verwoerd.
Before the mid-1950s the South African commercial papers rarely referred to an African as "Mr" or "Miss".
As recently as the 1980s, wellknown South African editors felt no compunction about virtually congratulating the hired assassins who blinded Judge Albie Sachs in one eye and blew off his right arm.
The US media, which some consider the freest in the world, enthusiastically incited the American public to a criminal war based on a tissue of lies in 2003.
An awesome responsibility devolves on the media because its influence can be benevolent or malevolent.
While we should all pride ourselves in our collective achievement of media freedom, we cannot shut our eyes to its uses and abuses in the past.
Yes, the truth is very powerful, yet it is also extremely elusive. No single person, no body of opinion, no political doctrine, no religious doctrine can claim a monopoly on truth.
Centuries of human experience demonstrate that the truth can be arrived at only through the untrammelled contest among differing opinions, in which as many points of view as possible are given a fair and equal hearing.
Laws and practices that repress freedom of expression have done society a disservice.
Censorship, the suppression of information and the repression of those who bring us information, have invariably been the devices employed by falsehood.
Securing the right of the citizen to express whatever opinion he/she subscribes to, as long as the exercise of that right does not harm others, remains among the objectives all South African democrats should pursue.
The removal from our statute books of the laws, ordinances, regulations and administrative measures that abridged the rights of South African citizens to receive and to transmit information, which repress the freedom of the media to publish, are among the finest fruits of the democratic transformation that the ANC led and initiated.
These critical ingredients of our democratic culture still need nurturing. It is the responsibility of the ANC, in the first instance, to continue striving for, nurturing and defending these rights.
Freedom of the press is among the oldest and most valued of the freedoms for which many South Africans have given their lives.
The pioneers of the African language press were among the founders of the ANC. They include our first president, Dr John Langalibalele Dube, the distinguished educator who founded Ohlange Institute and the newspaper, Ilanga lase Natal; that giant among African men of letters, Solomon Plaatje, founder/editor of Koeranta eaBatswana and our first secretary-general.
We can also proudly recall the names of two courageous ANC militants, Joe Gqabi and Ruth First, whose murders by agents of the apartheid regime is still shrouded in mystery and clouded by half-truths despite the TRC.
These were journalists in the tradition of the founders of the ANC.
It would be a slight to their memory and their work if our actions today proved us unworthy of their sacrifice.
The ANC has a long track record of commitment to media freedom. In defending a free media, we are defending the ANC's own rich heritage, the heritage bequeathed to us by those 19th century pioneers.
The value we place on a free, independent and outspoken press in democratic South Africa cannot be overstated.
A free press can temper the appetite of any government to amass power at the expense of the citizen. A free press can be the vigilant watchdog of the public interest against the temptations to abuse power.
This underscores the need for the South African media to become more representative of the diversity and variety of viewpoints among our people.
In a democratic dispensation in a pluralist society like ours there will be ongoing contestation among its various components.
Tension between those tasked with governing and the media, as purveyors of information and opinion, is one of the inevitable features of a democracy.
It is pointless to deny the existence of this tension and it is short-sighted to suggest that it is indicative of a temptation to censor.
I cannot imagine an ANC government that is fearful of criticism.
The ANC has not and shall not wilt under criticism or close scrutiny. Robust debate can only help us to deepen our democracy. But, debate is a two-way street, which contributes to the health of a democracy by calling attention to those of our actions and omissions which do not measure up to our people's expectations.
Former president Nelson Mandela, addressing the International Press Union in March 1994, said: "If the people of South Africa elect us to office, we firmly undertake that an ANC government will strive for an open society in which vigorous debate is encouraged through a free press and other media ..."
The challenge today is for the ANC to live up to that undertaking.
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