The appointment at the end of June of a commission of inquiry to investigate the mass media, came after a period in which the South African press, already severely restricted, had come under even tighter control.
At the height of the police repression of strikes and demonstrations in June, the police made increased use of their powers to control journalists' access to areas of police action. The moves, together with detentions of several reporters, came in the context of several recent legislative restrictions on the press and threats by the Prime Minister to curb the press still further. These developments were seen by some journalists as bringing the press within the 'total war' strategy of the regime. When the Commission of Inquiry was appointed, fears were expressed in virtually every newspaper, including the Afrikaans ones, that further restrictions are on the way.
FURTHER LAWS AGAINST THE PRESS A series of laws passed in 1979 increased police power in relation to the press. A clause in the 1979 Police Amendment Act made it an offence to publish untrue statements about police actions in the performance of their duties unless the newspaper had "reasonable grounds for believing that the statement is true". The onus of proof of "reasonableness" of grounds, is on the newspapers. The heavy penalties (up to R10,000 or 5 years in prison) have had the effect of severely restricting reports of police actions. (A similar law relating to prisons has effectively sealed them off from public scrutiny since 1959).
At the same time a Police Public Relations Directorate was set up, "to help the press", and it is now the main source of information about police actions.
The 1980 Police Amendment Act will prevent the press from publishing the names of people detained as part of the police campaign against "terrorism".
The 1979 Inquest Act makes it a crime to "prejudice, influence or anticipate" the proceedings or findings at an inquest. This measure was a response to the reporting of the inquest into the death of Steve Biko.
The Petroleum Products Amendment Act and the National Supplies Procurement Act, both passed in 1979, were measures designed to maintain secrecy about strategic purchases and products. In terms of the latter law the Minister of Economic Affairs can "whenever he deems necessary or expedient for the security of the Republic" prohibit the disclosure of any information in relation to goods and services.
The National Supplies Procurement Act makes it an offence to report on "the source, manufacture, transportation, destination, storage or stock level of any petroleum products acquired or manufactured for or in the Republic", or any negotiations on such matters, or "any statement, comments or rumours calculated directly or indirectly to convey such information or anything purporting (sic) to such information." Foreign correspondents are also subject to the ban.
In June this year, a fortnight after ANC guerillas successfully attacked the petrol-from-coal installation at Sasolburg, a National Key Points Act was passed, preventing publication without the permission of the Minister of Defence of incidents involving security at classified national key points.
The latest laws were reported as having brought to more than 100 the number of laws restricting the news that may be published, or requiring official authorisation before publication.
REPORTERS DETAINED Black journalists were detained on a number of occasions during the recent protests and demonstrations, some in the course of covering the events and others apparently because the security police have wanted to interrogate them about the Writers Association of South Africa. WASA has represented black journalists since the banning in 1977 of the Union of Black Journalists.
The interest of the Security Police in WASA was evident in its interrogation of Mono Badela in Port Elizabeth. They questioned him on WASA and the visit of American journalists to South Africa in June.
In May a senior Daily Despatch reporter, Charles Nquakula, who is the senior national vice-president of WASA, was taken from his office by security policemen and held for a week. He said he was questioned extensively on WASA, on its constitution and aims.
With the school boycott starting in April and spreading across the country, a number of journalists were picked up in the course of their duties while covering the protests. Willie Bokala and Willie Nkosi, for example, of the Post and Star, were detained on 27 April in Mamelodi, Pretoria with students on their way to the unveiling of the tombstone on Solomon Mahlangu's grave. On the same day Kingdom Lolwane, also of the Post was detained in Soweto, and a Rand Daily Mail photographer, Ralph Ndawo, was detained in Mamelodi on 29 April, and later released. Later detentions of journalists included Bloemfontein journalist Ernest Motshumi (early in May), H. Matsomela of the Post on 26 May and Marimuthy Subramoney of the Daily News on 27 May.
More recently a Cape Times reporter, Zubeida Jaffer, was detained in August, under Section 12(b) of the Internal Security Act, used to obtain potential witnesses in court cases. The Editor of the Cape Times, noting that it was her job as a reporter "to have the right contacts", voiced his "suspicion that the police wanted to know about them and shut them down".
CONTROLLING JOURNALISTS' MOVEMENTS As the conflict increased in June and police violence intensified, the police took measures to exclude the press from areas in which they were taking repressive action. It appears to have happened for the first time in Bloemfontein, when riot police closed the area around Batho township and refused to allow journalists in. On this occasion police opened fire on demonstrators, after a national serviceman had been beaten up in the township and streets had been barricaded to block the movement of police vehicles. Although not allowed in, journalists heard orders over police radios to open fire with shotguns.
Before controls on the movement of journalists were imposed, some foreign journalists were the object of police attacks. When police were dispersing demonstrators outside the Regina Mundi church on 15 June, for example, some of the teargas canisters were aimed at journalists. A BBC cameraman said that riot squad policemen fired teargas at the BBC crew on three different occasions.
On June 16 the police placed restrictions on the admission of reporters to what they at first called "trouble spots" and later, "operational areas". Alleging that some foreign journalists were "openly inciting" youths in Soweto and elsewhere, the Commissioner of Police announced that in future only selected journalists under police escort would be allowed into "trouble areas". Evidence of the alleged incitement has not been produced despite requests from the press.
The selection of the journalists was controlled by Divisional Commissioners of police. This control was used to exclude journalists, other than selected ones under police escort, on a number of occasions. It happened at Noordgesig, near Soweto, where police shot and wounded at least 20 people, and in areas in the Cape Flats where 42 people were believed killed.
In both places there were major discrepancies between police accounts of what happened and the accounts newspapers pieced together from eyewitnesses and hospitals, both in terms of the numbers killed, and in terms of the nature of the police actions. (For example, although police said that the disturbances were the result of criminal elements, the Cape Times noted that a feature of the victims was a high number of women and girls killed, as well as the large proportion of people who happened to be in the area but were not participating in any demonstration or riot. Five weeks after the deaths the Cape Times stated it had not been able to establish that any of those who died were members of gangs who had attacked shops.
The controls on journalists were also imposed in Uitenhage in the Eastern Cape on 20 June, during the period of intense police actions against striking workers, using teargas, batons and birdshot.
NEW COMMISSION OF ENQUIRY On 24 June the Minister of Police lifted the restrictions, making clear that the lifting of the restrictions would be reconsidered "should circumstances warrant it".
Four days later the Minister of Justice and of the Interior announced the appointment of a commission of inquiry into the mass media, its brief being "to inquire into and report on the question whether the conduct of and the handling of matters by the mass media meets the needs and interests of the South African community and the demands of the times, and if not, how they can be improved".
PASS LAWS More than 200,000 people were arrested under the pass laws in South Africa last year. The South African Police arrested about 120,000 people, while Administration Board officers arrested 83,397. These figures emerged from information given by the Minister of Police and the Minister of Co-operation and Development.
