South African business should take seriously President Zuma's invitation to an open debate about the role of the media and its alignment with the Constitution. Pick n Pay recognizes that there is a close link between economic and political freedom. The economic freedom on which business depends flourishes best when citizens are able to rely on an unfettered flow of information that is free from excessive government control and regulation.
To the extent that the Protection of Information Bill and the proposed media appeals tribunal threaten that freedom, all sectors of South African society are justified in opposing them. The business sector should not believe itself exempt from this duty of responsible citizenship, and we thus have no hesitation in adding our voices to those who have expressed their misgivings about the consequences of the governing party's proposals.
All the historical evidence speaks unambiguously on the relation between political freedom and a free market. An open society is one in which Government is responsive and tolerant, and political mechanisms are transparent and flexible, in which political leaders can be replaced without the need for bloodshed, and in which the rule of law, property rights and freedom of economic initiative are guaranteed.
And history has taught us that throughout the world, nations with more economic freedom are wealthier than nations with less economic freedom. There are no wealthy nations that have little economic freedom.
For those reasons, any attempt by Government to restrict the free flow of information or to circumscribe the liberty of the media should be opposed.
There is no doubt that the South Africa of today is a far, far better place than it was before 1994. We live in a country that is governed not by the unchallengeable dictates of cabinet ministers or security chiefs, but by the entrenched principles of a progressive constitution which binds Parliament and citizen alike to a judiciable bill of rights, a free press and an independent judiciary.