FURTHER SALVOES ON ‘THE BATTLEFIELD OF IDEAS'
I am glad to see that the Alliance has decided to trundle one of its heaviest pieces of intellectual artillery - Jeremy Cronin - onto what it calls ‘the battlefield of ideas.' He has come out, canons a-blazing, in response to widespread criticism of Government's threat to curb the freedom of expression by means of the Protection of Information Bill and the proposed Media Appeals Tribunal (see here). I keenly awaited his defence of these initiatives - but there was none.
He didn't explain why the Government had ignored the clear recommendations of its own Review Commission on the Protection of Information Bill. The Commission, under the leadership of Frene Ginwala, called aspects of the POIB "Orwellian" and eloquently expressed virtually all the central criticisms that were subsequently repeated in the ‘liberal' press. He did not point out why it was necessary for South Africa to have a far more draconian government information classification regime than a nuclear super-power like the United States. He did not try to reconcile this transparent effort to stop legitimate reporting on government activities with the clear requirement for openness and accountability in the founding provisions of the Constitution.
Neither were there any heavy broadsides in defence of the MAT. Why, for example, did the government want to deviate from the virtually universal preference in genuine democracies for media self-regulation? How does he square Jackson Mthembu's statement that "we will still use the same journalistic codes (but) if you go against those codes, then we should impose some punitive measures" with protestations that the MAT would be an independent process? And what about his comrade, Blade Nzimande's, recent statement that the MAT should be established because it was necessary "to protect socialism" against "a huge liberal offensive against our democracy"?
Cronin chose, instead, the easier option of sniping at the press (greedy Irishmen, bad boers, and BEE fat cats) and in laying down a remarkable smokescreen to the effect that the liberal media was wittingly or unwittingly in league with Julius Malema (whose name, like that of Lord Voldemort, he could not quite get himself to utter). On the battlefield of ideas the outcome is not determined by a vote - as it is in parliament - but by which arguments are the best and which ideas are the most valid. Anyone is welcome to participate and the only restrictions are those that are set by the Constitution.