Arrest a boorish scare tactic

JOURNALISTS are not above the law, but the media as an institution plays a special role in a healthy democracy and this should be taken into account even when the authorities believe they have a prima facie case of criminality to investigate.

It is premature to pronounce on the merits of the case against Sunday Times reporter Mzilikazi wa Afrika, who was roughly arrested at Avusa ’s Rosebank headquarters yesterday, apparently on suspicion of fraud and defeating the ends of justice. If such charges can be proven, then justice should be allowed to take its course.

However, the timing and manner of the arrest are disturbing. Mr wa Afrika is in the bad books of police commissioner Bheki Cele after writing an article that raised questions about his involvement in the awarding of a lease agreement for police headquarters. On Tuesday, Gen Cele referred to Mr wa Afrika as a “very shady journalist”; yesterday he was bundled into a police vehicle and taken away, and his employers refused information on where he was being held or when he would appear in court.

The charges Mr wa Afrika faces are not, at face value, related to the Sunday Times’s dispute with Gen Cele. But the timing is suspicious, especially in the broader context of the ruling party’s attack on media freedom through the introduction of a draconian bill that would allow officials to keep more information away from prying eyes, a bid to subject the media to a tribunal under the control of politicians, and proposed amendments to the Criminal Procedure Act that would force journalists to reveal their sources.

It is probably coincidental that the South African National Editors’ Forum was meeting in the same building to discuss the threat to media freedom at the time that Mr wa Afrika was arrested. But it is stretching credulity to accept without question that the highly public nature of the arrest and sheer number of officers dispatched to do the deed, as well as their aggressive attitude towards photographers exercising their right to cover the event, was anything other than a crude attempt at intimidation.

Source: Business Day