Press Freedom: ‘Information as a Public Good’

This year’s World Press Freedom Day (May 3) is being commemorated under the theme ‘Information as a Public Good’.

May 4, 2021

1 minute read

Reporters Without Borders (RWB) says that while press freedom is guaranteed in South Africa, it is fragile.

Its recently released 2021 World Press Freedom Index ranks South Africa at 32 out of 180 nations surveyed. The country was ranked 31st in 2020 survey.

RWB The report reads: “South Africa’s 1996 Constitution protects press freedom. An investigative journalism culture is well established but apartheid-era legislation and terrorism laws are used to limit coverage of government institutions when ‘national interest’ is supposedly at stake.”

Latiefa Mobara, the executive director of the Press Council of South Africa, says the law protects the media in spite of the reluctance of some law enforcement agencies to implement media freedoms.

“The courts too are fearlessly protecting journalists, as shown by the ruling in favour of journalists branded askaris and stratcom journalists by the EFF,” she says.

Hopewell Radebe, the acting executive director of the South African National Editors’ Forum, says press freedom will be enhanced by a review into the unintended consequences of the Promotion of Access to Information Act.

“Many government authorities are now using it to delay the media from accessing information and getting their stories out.”