The entire nation should be shocked by the reports that a SABC cameramen has been severely beaten up and is in hospital because he was filming the ANC centennial celebration in Cape Town where a violent confrontation is reported to have taken place between ANC factions. Reportedly, he was beaten up when he refused to switch off his camera.
This is a terrible attack on press freedom. This is not an isolated incident, but the reflection of an growing mindset within the ANC which has expressed itself in Malema verbally assaulting the media at a press conference, the ANC proposals to have a media tribunal and the secrecy bill.
We call on the SABC staff, the management and Board not to yield to political pressures to minimize the matter as an unfortunate incident.
Even in wars, media and medical personnel are respected and protected by belligerents of both sides. What happened reflects the lack of respects that the ANC has either inculcated or allowed to grow among his members. Zuma’s apology is welcome but is not sufficient without a firm commitment on the side of the entire ANC leadership to change the ways they deal with the media, which in the final analysis is the way the ANC deals with the people’s right to know.
Mario GR Oriani-Ambrosini MP
