Zuma move is an attack on press freedom

Media freedom is a basic tenet of democracy, which is why it is constitutionally guaranteed in SA.

Media, including this newspaper, play a key role in holding those in power to account and assisting citizens to make informed decisions.

This does not suit the interests of some individuals and groups who have resorted to attempts to intimidate journalists, hoping to silence them.

The private prosecution brought by former president Jacob Zuma against journalist Karyn Maughan, along with state advocate Billy Downer, is just such an attempt.

The charges relate to News24’s publication of a letter from Zuma’s doctor, which was attached to papers lodged at the KwaZulu-Natal high court last year.

Zuma, a veteran of playing the legal system, is objecting to an everyday occurrence in court reporting — that the NPA’s legal team shared court papers with a journalist who, once the court was sitting, published information that formed part of the public record.

The judge in the case ruled this information was not confidential and the NPA subsequently declined to prosecute Downer.

Against this background, it is hard to see Zuma’s private prosecution as anything but vindictive and designed to silence critical media coverage.

His issue of summons against Maughan has rightly been condemned by a range of media freedom organisations, including the SA National Editors Forum, which has also criticised a threat by the IFP to march on the offices of Sunday newspaper City Press.

The IFP previously failed in its complaints against the newspaper’s editor, Mondli Makhanya.

That the party is now resorting to whipping up mass action against the paper is alarming.

It amounts to a bid to silence critique by intimidation.

All democrats should condemn the harassment of journalists for doing their jobs.

In the words of Nelson Mandela: “A critical, independent and inquiring press is the lifeblood of any democracy.” 

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