Remarks by President Jacob Zuma during Media Freedom Day Commemoration Sefako Makgatho Presidential Guest House, Pretoria

18 October 2015

The Minister of Communications, Ms Faith Muthambi and all Ministers present,

Editors and senior journalists,

Media veterans,

Senior Officials,

Welcome to the commemoration of Media Freedom Day, an important day for our country.

On the 19th of October 1977, a dark cloud engulfed our country.

The apartheid regime clamped down on the media, banning two newspapers, the World and Weekend World. They arrested the editor, the late Percy Qoboza and other journalists who were courageously exposing crimes against humanity that were perpetrated by the regime.

The clampdown took place in the climate of repression that had followed the June 16 uprising and the horrific and unforgivable murder of Bantu Steven Biko in police custody in September 1977.

Scores of activists were banned and arrested while others fled South Africa and opted for a life in exile.

Twenty one years later, we reflect on that painful period in our country’s history with both sadness and pride.

We are sad because so many lives were lost and destroyed over many decades because of an evil regime that turned South Africans against one another and sowed divisions and hatred.

We are pleased and proud because we defeated the demon of racism and racial oppression and brought about a new democratic order in our country.

We experienced the horrors of living in a society in which the media could not expose wrong doing and atrocities, during the period of apartheid colonialism.

We lived in a society where people were jailed or killed for expressing their views or for demanding the democratic and free society we live in today.

In crafting a new democratic order, we were determined that never again would our nation witness the harassment of the media such as that which occurred on 19 October 1977.

For this reason, we produced a progressive Constitution which guarantees our freedom and our rights. This includes freedom of the media, expression, association, assembly, artistic creativity, academic freedom and freedom of scientific research.

These freedoms are however not absolute. The Constitution adds that these rights do not extend to propaganda for war, incitement of imminent violence or the propagation of hatred based on race, ethnicity, gender or religion.

The Constitution also enshrines everyone’s right to assemble to demonstrate, to picket and to present petitions, but adds that those exercising these rights must do so peacefully and unarmed.

That is the South Africa we fought for and the South Africa we live in. This is the South Africa we love and the South Africa we are working tirelessly to build, as government and South Africans from all walks of life.

Compatriots,

We fought hard and relentlessly to have a South Africa where all enjoy these rights and freedoms.

Therefore, our commitment to freedom of expression, a free media and all the freedoms enshrined in our Constitution remains steadfast.

Government will continue to promote media freedom and to protect the right and space for the media to report without fear or favour as has been happening for the past 21 years of freedom.

Information is power.

In this regard, we also urge the media industry to ensure that media freedom and access to the media are enjoyed by all in the country, including the poor and the working class.

This entails ensuring that media products reflect the lives of the majority and that they have the space to share their dreams, successes and hardships, accurately and without prejudice.

It means ensuring that media products inspire and build our country and provides our youth with role models around whom they can build their lives.

This is in addition to the role of the media in providing a platform to promote good governance, ethical behavior and the fight against corruption as part of nation building.

Let me reiterate that information is power. Citizens need information to go about their daily lives. They need to know about government services and where and how to access them.

In this regard, we are pleased that our country has a growing radio sector, including community radio, following the opening up of the airwaves by the democratic state.

Radio reaches millions of our people including those in remote areas of our country. That is another achievement of democracy.

Government is also playing its role to further promote access to information to the poor who are not covered by commercial media, through the government newspaper Vukuzenzele which reaches more than one million people a month.

All these platforms take forward the goal of expanding access to information which promotes and enhances democracy.

Compatriots in the media,

Let me touch on a matter that is of interest to you, the Protection of State Information Bill.

The Bill is still under consideration and various inputs and legal opinions are being processed.

I had sent the Bill back to Parliament for technical reasons and they returned it with the changes having been made.

Thereafter, further objections were received which were of a constitutional nature. The new Minister of State Security, Mr David Mahlobo also requested to work further on some aspects of the Bill. At the appropriate time a determination will be made on the way forward.

In addition, the governing party the ANC also resolved at its National General Council to implement the 2007 conference resolution on media transformation, accountability and diversity. This includes the proposed parliamentary enquiry on the feasibility and desirability of a Media Appeals Tribunal.

We anticipate that parliament will in its deliberations, take into account the media and freedom of expression provisions in the Constitution of the Republic.

Nothing will be done which is in contravention of the Constitution of the Republic.

Compatriots,

Media Freedom Day is a day of unity. On this day we recommit to working harder together to promote access to information and the media for all.

It is also a day of recommitting ourselves to building a South Africa that is truly united, non-racial, non-sexist, democratic and prosperous.

The achievement of that society, which we call a National Democratic Society, is the responsibility of all South Africans including the media.

We look forward to working with you to move our country forward to unity, success and prosperity. 

I thank you.

Issued by The Presidency, 18 October 2015