Parliamentary Press Gallery Association statement on Deon de Lange
It is hugely ironic that a report on the legislation which intends to clamp down on the free flow of information about parliamentary, and indeed government, activities - the Protection of State Information Bill - is the very issue over which parliament is now trying to clamp down on the reporting activities of Independent Newspapers parliamentary correspondent Deon de Lange.
Parliament has unearthed some document pertaining to be rules which govern the activities of the Parliamentary Press Gallery - a collection of journalists who cover parliament.
The threat to expell De Lange by parliament comes at the worst time possible as tensions are rising between government, the ruling party and the media, owing to the confusion over the highly controversial legislation and the gagging intent behind it.
The gallery has been concerned for some time about the subtle attempts to exclude the media whereever possible. This includes the requirement to reapply for accreditation by all. Somehow, the new accreditation cards have not been provided to most of those who have applied.
The use of a draft policy on media relations management document - which has never been seen by members of the gallery before being hauled out to threaten De Lange - would indicate that parliament and government have pernicious intent.
This policy was apparently signed off by the speaker of the national assembly, Max Sisulu, and Johannes Mahlangu, chairman of the NCOP, in 2009. It was never circulated or discussed in any form whatsoever with the parliamentary gallery association or, to the best of our knowledge, with any of its members. Parliament has NEVER approached the PGA to make inputs into this policy. The PGA would never have agreed to many - if not all - of the provisions in the document. This included that journalists should not approach party support staff - itself an utterly absurd notion in a democracy - or employees of parliament to seek information on parliamentary matters.
It requires that all enquiries should be made through the parliamentary media relations office. Ironically this notoriously inefficient operation was responsible - in terms of the draft policy - for circulating this document. Apart from presenting the document to De Lange asking him for reasons why he should not be expelled from parliament, we had not seen it before.
To restate: The clause being used against De Lange in the draft policy reads that "journalists should not approach party support staff or employees of parliament to seek information on parliamentary matters. All enquiries are to be made through the media relations office".
This would imply that interaction with ANC, DA, Cope, IFP, ACDP, Azapo, Minority Front, African People's Convention and the Pan African Congress staff would be proscribed. It means that power struggles within any of the parties could not be reported on or analysed. It is beyond absurd because all these matters would be deeply in the public interest. It could even mean that parliamenary journalists would not be able to gain access to annual reports of departments and state entities.
Statement issued by Donwald Pressly, Parliamentary Press Gallery Co-Chairman and Joylene van Wyk, Co- Chairwoman, October 4 2011
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