Minister Alwyn Schlebusch's proposals for a media tribunal ('statutory press council') to curb the abuse of press freedom:

The idea had arisen to empower the Newspaper Press Union by legislation, and with the permission of the minister concerned or the State President, to issue regulations to combat the abuse of press freedom, the Minister of Justice and the Interior, Mr Alwyn Schlebusch, said yesterday (September 18 1979).

Addressing the annual congress of the NPU at Skukuza in the Kruger National Park, Mr Schlebusch said such regulations could make provision for a Press Council constituted more or less like the present one. It could consist of several members of whom two must be active journalists (one English-speaking and one Afrikaans-speaking).

Its functions would include the following:

• A press code with which all newspapers published in the Republic must comply, irrespective of whether they are members of the NPU, or not. The Press Council will then be empowered to investigate a complaint that the code has been contravened and in the case of a guilty finding it can:
  • (A) Reprimand the person primarily responsible for the report concerned, levy a maximum fine of R1,000 or prohibit him for a specified or undetermined time (in other words permanently) from practicing journalism.
  • (B) To levy a maximum fine of R10,000 on the owner of the newspaper concerned.
  • (C) To order that the printing and publishing of the newspaper concerned be suspended for a period determined by the Press Council or indefinitely (in other words permanently.)
• A code of conduct for journalists. The Press Council will then be authorized to investigate a complaint against a journalist that he had contravened the code and, if he is found guilty, fine him or prohibit him temporarily or permanently from practicing the profession of a journalist or reporter.
• Prescriptions regarding the citizenship of editors. "It is of course known to you that a country like Sweden determines that newspaper editors must be Swedish," Mr Schlebusch said. "It must be seriously considered whether the same provisions should not also apply in South Africa as far as editors are concerned. Logically there must also be an obligation that every newspaper or magazine must have an editor." "As far as journalists are concerned, I still maintain a policy of allowing them in ever smaller numbers. We must give our sons and daughters opportunities in this important profession."
• For the handling of so-called "stringers" as if they are editors of newspapers in the Republic so that the Press Council can be enabled to control their activities.
• A prohibition on the payment of compensation to any person for news hints or inviting of people to give news hints for compensation.
• To give the Press Council the authority to prohibit the publication in any newspaper of any report which the Press Council regards as being harmful to the security of the State or the welfare of the public.
• To give the Press Council the authority to decide whether anything might be published about a hearing held by the Press Council in Camera.
• To give the Press Council the authority to see that the activities, judgments and findings of courts and judicial commissions of inquiry appointed by the State, are not hampered, prejudiced, influenced or anticipated by reporting and that where such proceedings are held in camera, the reporting of it does not contain more than the judgment, finding and comment and other information in that connection allowed by the court or commission, the so-called sub-judice rule.
• Any other matter regarded as necessary to prevent abuse of the freedom of the press.

"I left a few loose thoughts in your midst for your consideration and I believe that in the discussions to follow, other matters and and aspects of the problem will come to the fore."

"I want to request you politely, however, to reflect on what I said to you today and to give your replies to the government during your forthcoming discussions with the prime minister," Mr Schlebusch said.

Source: Cape Times September 19 1979

Reply by the Rand Daily Mail Press Ombudsman, James McClurg:

Without drawing the worst conclusion - that the Government is determined to extinguish Press freedom in South Africa - it is hard to know precisely what the Minister of the Interior, Mr Alwyn Schlebusch, hopes to achieve in the talks he is planning to hold with the National Press Union.

He wants to invest the NPU with statutory authority, including powers to ban journalists and publications, whether or not the latter are members of the NPU. This would be laughable if it were not so sinister.

I am sure the NPU will reject this proposal out of hand. If Press freedom is to be destroyed, which would be the result if not the intention of such a move, let Government, not the Press, do the deed.

Or, in the idiom of old-fashioned stories of army life, let the Government call out the firing squad, not hand a revolver to the victim and withdraw silently from the room.

Why the Minister should wish to change the present composition of the Press Council is a mystery. In addition to the chairman, a retired judge, the present system provides for a panel of "persons experienced in the conduct of Press affairs" and another panel of "persons capable of representing the interests of the general public."

The proposed addition of "two active journalists" could achieve little - except, conceivably, swing the balance of the tribunal in favour of the newspaper as against the complainants.

If the Minister is dissatisfied with the performance of the Press Council one would expect him to want to make it more, not less, conservative. As things are, members tend to be elderly and cautious.

Yet, as the president of the NPU, Mr Opperman, has pointed out, this conservatively weighted body has upheld only four out of 118 complaints against newspapers in the year 1978/9. In 35 cases the chairman, Mr Oscar Galgut, who retired as a judge of the Appeal Court in 1977m found the complaints so flimsy that he exercised his power to dismiss them on his own authority.

In the light of these facts, can there really be as much wrong with the Press as Mr Schlebusch seems to think?

The Minister would like to extend the Code of Conduct to which the Press adheres. This is strange, since the Prime Minister is on record as considering the code "excellent" as it stands.

Looking at it from a different point of view, it is hard to see how it could be made more stringent without sacrificing the whole notion of Press freedom.

Perhaps the real sting of the proposals lies in the suggestion that individual journalists, as opposed to the publications they serve, should be subject to the Press Council's jurisdiction. The council would have the power of life and death, professionally speaking, over them.

Here again I trust the NPU will dismiss the idea out of hand. If the government has grievances against individual journalists - as not doubt it has - the NPU should not allow itself to be used as a stalking horse.

Source: Rand Daily Mail, September 24 1979

Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter