Wednesday, September 22, 2010

Draconian Censorship

Currently in South Africa there is much debate about the proposed media censorship legislation, the Media Appeals Tribunal (MAT). Hundreds of civil society organisations and individuals including myself, have opposed this proposed media tribunal as it hinders free speech, which characterises democracy in the country.

The media can only report on stories that is made available to them, and who are the ones predominantly making news? The corrupt politician’s of course. To put it simply, if politicians play the role they promised to be in the times of elections, as opposed to the corruption most of them perform, the MAT would have blown over quickly.

However, whether or not the MAT is implemented, I think they (ANC) neglect to consider the internet as a form of new media. How do they plan to control blogs and social networks such as Facebook and Twitter? Once a blog is posted, it is there to be viewed by any individual who has access to the internet. People can comment and post whatever they feel. It is the user of the blogger or Facebook to remove the post, note or status.

In my opinion, with the rise of new media, the process of censorship is frustrated and may prove to be problematic with regards to editing, censoring and locating the internet user.

Not only would the MAT prevent free speech but most South Africans are forgetting or are oblivious to the fact that South Africa may revert back to the apartheid system if a MAT was to be implemented. It is so uncalled for!

2 comments:

  1. I think government has definitely forgotten to take new media into conisderation- this is going to be a tough thing to control.

    ReplyDelete
  2. This is a very serious issue and we simply cannot be quiet and say nothing.

    ReplyDelete