Muthambi must confirm or deny reports of advertising blackmail
12 December 2014
Reports today that the Government Communication and Information System (GCIS) is to withhold advertising from newspapers that do not toe the ANC line need to be refuted by Minister Muthambi immediately.
If she does not, she will confirm - once and for all - that her new department is the ‘Ministry of Propaganda' we have been warning about.
It is reported that the ANC is targeting three newspapers - the Mail & Guardian, Sunday Times and City Press - that it believes is engaged in "an anti-ANC and anti-government onslaught" (see M&G article).
The plan to withhold government advertising from these newspapers was confirmed by the head of the ANC's communications subcommittee, Lindiwe Zulu, who said: "How do you continue to pay people who insult you? What's that? Something needs to give."