A LOOK at the media in recent weeks shows that the ANC and its alliance partners, or at least their talking heads, are again, and rather predictably, getting a bit grumpy with the media and again raising the spectre of introducing a "media tribunal" (the mind boggles!)
The complaints from the establishment seem to coincide with the announcement that a business family, the Guptas, plan to launch a new ANC-aligned newspaper and the "new" Protection of Information Bill which, the usual democracy watchdogs have warned, could severely compromise media freedom.
It was, if I have it right, Blade Nzimande, Minister of Higher Education and Training and general secretary of the SA Communist Party, who kicked off the latest round of bash- the-media with a piece in Umsebenzi Online on July 7 about the Ashley Smith/Argus issue.
Nzimande treated it as though it was the most devastating evil that had ever befallen the media - whereas the issue has in fact been knocking around for years. It probably re-emerged recently due to someone's desire to further sully the already questionable reputation of the ANC's Ebrahim Rasool (who has been made ambassador to the US); and it was in fact about two foolish journalists who were trying to make a quick buck on the side.
Then, on July 15, Siphiwe Nyanda, the Minister of Communications, attacked the press for claiming that he had suspended his director-general because she had insinuated that he had had his fingers in the proverbial cookie jar.
On July 18 Jackson Mthembu, the ANC spokesperson, issued a statement attacking the media for "mischievously and disingenuously" criticising ministers for staying in luxury hotels.