THE Independent Complaints Directorate is to investigate recent police action against two Sowetan journalists, the DA said yesterday.
Also, the SA National Editors Forum yesterday added its voice to those condemning the police for arresting two journalists while they were carrying out normal reporting duties.
"Even more alarming was the police confiscation of the journalists' cellphones and other equipment which was handed back only after the intervention of a lawyer," it said.
Sanef's concern about the confiscation of the equipment - cameras and cellphones - arose from the fact that it might have contained confidential information which the reporters were professionally ethically bound to protect.
Penwell Dlamini and Antonio Muchave were arrested by Hillbrow police on December 29.
They were detained while covering a story on the eviction of nine families from Regal Court flats in the Johannesburg city centre.
The DA's Dianne Kohler-Barnard received a letter on Monday from ICD director Francois Beukman.
"From the evidence presented publicly, it appears that no arrest could have taken place in terms of section 69 in this particular instance," she said.
The ICD investigation needed to shed light on why the arrests took place, and upon what basis the police confiscated equipment.
Kohler-Barnard said the ICD also needed to find out why police officials had given "contradictory accounts of why these events transpired".
"On the one hand, police spokesperson Noxolo Kweza condemned these arrests as unacceptable; on the other, station commander Colonel van Rhyn maintained the arrests were perfectly legitimate."
She said there appeared to be a growing trend of arbitrary arrests of journalists.
ICD set to probe arrest of journos
THE Independent Complaints Directorate is to investigate recent police action against two Sowetan journalists, the DA said yesterday.
Also, the SA National Editors Forum yesterday added its voice to those condemning the police for arresting two journalists while they were carrying out normal reporting duties.
"Even more alarming was the police confiscation of the journalists' cellphones and other equipment which was handed back only after the intervention of a lawyer," it said.
Sanef's concern about the confiscation of the equipment - cameras and cellphones - arose from the fact that it might have contained confidential information which the reporters were professionally ethically bound to protect.
Penwell Dlamini and Antonio Muchave were arrested by Hillbrow police on December 29.
They were detained while covering a story on the eviction of nine families from Regal Court flats in the Johannesburg city centre.
The DA's Dianne Kohler-Barnard received a letter on Monday from ICD director Francois Beukman.
"From the evidence presented publicly, it appears that no arrest could have taken place in terms of section 69 in this particular instance," she said.
The ICD investigation needed to shed light on why the arrests took place, and upon what basis the police confiscated equipment.
Kohler-Barnard said the ICD also needed to find out why police officials had given "contradictory accounts of why these events transpired".
"On the one hand, police spokesperson Noxolo Kweza condemned these arrests as unacceptable; on the other, station commander Colonel van Rhyn maintained the arrests were perfectly legitimate."
She said there appeared to be a growing trend of arbitrary arrests of journalists.
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