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South African parliament questioned over media policy

Friday, October 7, 2011

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Parliamentary media policy in South Africa will be subject to legal advice after complaints journalists have a lack of freedom in reporting government proceedings.

The move follows a call to ban journalist Deon de Lange from reporting on parliament, after he allegedly breached reporting protocol by speaking to a parliament official without permission. De Lange quoted the unnamed official who criticised a push to pass the Protection of State Information Bill, which would ban whistle-blowing on classified documents.

The editor of Independent Newspapers, de Lange's employer, has stated he was unaware of the parliamentary media rule. Other media groups, including the National Press Club and the Cape Town Press Club believe the move to ban De Lange is "ridiculous" according to Eye Witness News, also saying they were unaware of the rule.

Both clubs have condemned the move. No issues were raised regarding journalists quoting parliamentarians previously. The parliamentary media policy was reviewed in 2009 unbeknown to many press outlets.

Opposition parliamentary leader Atholl Trollip believes the move is being used to further gag the media from reporting on parliament, however parliamentary spokesman Luzuko Jacobs has stated that officials need to remain neutral in their stance on issues. "It is unethical, unacceptable and we can't have officials expressing a negative or a positive comment," he said.

Jacobs has refuted the claims South African media is being refused reporting rights; the government does not intend to make it impossible for journalists to speak with members of parliament through the media policy, he says.


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  This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.
Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

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