Recent reports on police National Commissioner Bheki Cele and the R500-million rental deal for police headquarters may be on the agenda in a meeting between him and the SA National Editors' Forum (Sanef) on Tuesday. Sanef media freedom expert Raymond Louw said on Monday that Cele had requested the meeting and they did not know what issues he would raise. "Obviously he is going to raise some issues, he may raise issues about the reports on the move of the police headquarters."
At a media briefing last week Cele said he would be approaching Sanef about the article in the Sunday Times to discuss what he said had been a unanimous agreement on the principles of professionalism. The newspaper reported that Cele had signed a R500-million property rental deal that would see police headquarters move to the Middestad Sanlam Centre in Pretoria. According to the report, the deal was not treated as a tender, violating Treasury regulations that all government contracts worth over R500 000 go through a bidding process. However, Cele had denied this.
Louw said the editors were going to raise concerns about the conduct of the police in the arrest of Sunday Times journalist Mzilikazi wa Afrika. Wa Afrika was arrested outside the newspapers' offices on Wednesday by members of the Hawks special police unit He was apparently arrested for the possession of what police claim was a fraudulent letter of resignation from Mpumalanga premier David Mabuza to President Jacob Zuma.
The meeting would take place at Sanef offices in Johannesburg at 10am. Meanwhile, editors of major newspapers in South Africa launched a campaign to fight what they call attempts to curtail freedom of expression and the free flow of information. In a declaration, 37 print editors said they were "deeply concerned" about proposed new legislation and a media tribunal. "We vigorously oppose the restrictive clauses in the Protection of Information Bill and the proposed Media Appeals Tribunal (MAT)."
In the declaration, called the Auckland Park declaration, they appealed to the government and the ANC "to abide by the founding principles of our democracy and to abandon these proposed measures". They said freedom of expression and access to information were the "lifeblood" of the South African democracy and that the media was "at the very heart of the struggle for freedom". According to a resolution taken at the ANC's 52nd National Congress in 2007 in Polokwane, the establishment of a Media Appeals Tribunal should be investigated.
The resolution endorsed "that such investigation be directed at examining the principle of a MAT and the associated modalities for implementation". "Conference notes that the creation of a MAT would strengthen, complement and support the current self-regulatory institutions [Press Ombudsman/Press Council] in the public interest."
Source: Mail & Guardian
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