What you can and can’t say in South Africa


The Film and Publications Amendment Bill continues a trend towards the censorship of race-related free speech in SA.

Government told Sanef (the SA Editors' Forum) that it "had no intention of muzzling the media" with the Film and Publications Amendment Bill.

However, it would not remove from the Bill the two clauses revoking the exemption the print and broadcasting sectors before publishing the Bill and sending it to Parliament. It made a show of pretending that the Parliamentary process (over which it is not supposed to exercise any influence under the doctrine of the separation of powers) would resolve the issue?

In Addition, the CEO of the Film and Publications Board responded to challenges from the DA's Home Affairs Spokesperson Sandy Kalyan MP during countrywide Parliamentary hearings that "the media now accept the Bill" when she asked why the media had not been consulted.

Cabinet, and not Parliament, announced on 10 October 2006 after another meeting with Sanef that deliberation on the Bill would be delayed until next year after the DA's Communications Spokesperson Dene Smuts spoke out in articles in the South African print media.

The attached documents are an in-depth analysis by Dene Smuts MP's of the systematic erosion of free speech, specifically around the concept of "hate speech" over the last six years. Her argument resonates in independent research which she commissioned from Professor Victoria Bronstein of Wits University's Law Faculty (also available for download). South Africans were policed into political correctness and self-censorship after the 2000 Human Rights Commission Media Racism Inquiry and 2001 Racism Conferences. Now, the real thing is tabled in Parliament: old-fashioned government censorship - not on child porn, but on race. The DA will simply not stand by and allow this to happen.

Download supporting documents:

1. What you can and can’t say in SA: an analysis of free speech and censorship by Dene Smuts MP, DA spokesperson on Communications. (Censorship - Dene Smuts.doc)

2. An in-depth analysis of free speech and freedom of expression by Professor Victoria Bronstein from WITS university. (Censorship - Victoria Bronstein.doc)