Government to gag South African bloggers?

Another sign of an unyielding past

Then what, indeed?

Anton Harber, Professor of Journalism at Wits University, speaking on the Moneyweb Power Hour declared:  “Every possible media organisation, every editor, every journalist is about unanimous in pointing out that the bill is unconstitutional, unworkable, and would severely damage media freedom ... News media has always, even under the apartheid government, had an exemption from that process on the basis that you can't possibly create that kind of pre-publication of news media. But what this bill does is it takes away that exemption.”

There is no doubt that our government has an ambivilant attitude to the media.  President Mbeki is, once again, questioning the right of journalists to discuss issues of the day in ANC Today.

With the instant media world of blogging taking off across South Africa – Amatomu lists 428 blogs who cumulatively post over 250 articles a day – how exactly does the South African government intend to control this?

Or are we heading for a two-tiered system where those literate and wealthy enough to afford Internet access get a different type of news from the rest of South Africa?

With Cape Town about to host the World Newspaper Congress it is time that bloggers make their opinion felt on what the nature of press freedom and free speech really means.