Media, Parliament close to agreement on ‘censorship’ Bill

It quotes Trevor Ncube, President of Print Media SA, as saying indications were that ‘democracy and press freedom were safe’. It appeared that the vital exemption that allowed newspapers to publish without submitting material to the Film and Publications Board would stay in place. Media representatives were called to the National Assembly’s Home Affairs committee yesterday to expand on how solutions to problems around child pornography and children’s access to pornography could be found. Committee chairman Patrick Chauke did not go as far as to say that the exemptions for newspapers and broadcast media would stay, but said ‘it was important that press freedom in this country will remain free, without any interference’. The tone of the meeting was conciliatory, notes the report, with committee members insisting that they were looking for ways forward and understood the concerns that had been raised. Full report in The Mercury (subscription needed)

Freedom of the press does not mean anarchy, but the freedom for newspapers to regulate themselves, the committee heard yesterday. Media lawyer Ashoek Adhikari said there was no need for legislative regulation. ‘A press code of self-regulation is a more-dynamic and robust instrument than legislation,’ he added, according to a report on the News24 site. Newspapers had been around for centuries, were a ‘pivotal and absolute important pillar of any democracy’, and able to regulate themselves as the circumstances and times in which they operated changed. Full report on the News24 site