Government needs to condemn journalist arrest – Sowetan
Journalists Penwell Dlamini and Antonio Muchave were arrested by Hillbrow police on December 29 while covering a story on an eviction from Regal Court flats in Johannesburg CBD
DES LATHAM
|
Published: 2011/01/04 04:47:44 PM
|
The SA National Editors’ Forum has called the arrest of two Sowetan journalists and their detention "illegal".
"Even more alarming was the police confiscation of the journalists’ cellphones and other equipment which was handed back only after the intervention of a lawyer," Sanef said in a statement.
In an interview with Business Day, Sowetan Political Editor Ido Lekota says its time for government to intervene and bring police to order.
That’s after Sowetan journalists Penwell Dlamini and Antonio Muchave were arrested by Hillbrow police on December 29 while covering a story on the eviction of nine families from Regal Court flats in Johannesburg city centre.
"It’s not acceptable, South Africa is not a police state and its important for government to make its view known that the country is democratic and we have media freedom," said Lekota.
"Pressure needs to be brought to bear on the police to act in the interests of the law, and not to act with impunity against the law."
"Certain individuals feel they can act counter to the law and media freedom and this kind of action is systematic of a police state."
Sanef says the arrest was illegal.
"The police had ample time to examine the contents of the cellphones and other equipment to gather information to which legally they were not entitled," Sanef said.
"As far as Sanef is aware no charges were laid against the journalists who were in custody for an hour and no valid reason was advanced for the confiscation of the equipment.
"The fact that the equipment was returned to the journalists after a lawyer had intervened suggests that the police acted illegally in taking the equipment and were probably engaged in a fishing expedition to try to gather information or evidence about a potential crime — totally unacceptable conduct."
Sanef says its worrying that police acting station commander Colonel Kobus van Rooyen was quoted as saying journalists "should have asked for permission before taking photographs of a police operation".
During the apartheid era, journalists were regularly arrested and detained without trial by the regime who used legislation to oppress freedom of speech and the flow of information.
The latest arrest of journalists follows at least a dozen similar illegal arrests of journalists at crime and incident scenes in the past year.
The Independent Complaints Directorate is to investigate the incident following a request by the Democratic Alliance.
"The matter will be given the necessary attention and progress will be reported to you in due course," ICD executive director Francois Beukman wrote in a letter to the DA’s Dianne Kohler-Barnard on Monday.
Kohler-Barnard said this action appeared to have been unlawful.
"Section 69 of the SA Police Service Act provides parameters in which the police may legitimately limit photographic activity that may interfere with their work," she said.
With SAPA
http://www.businessday.co.za/articles/Content.aspx?id=130768
