Journalists accosted in Cape Town
May 23 2013 at 04:52am
Flickr.com
Cape Argus
photojournalist David Ritchie and reporter Yolisa Tswanya were allegedly manhandled
while covering a story in Cape Town. File photo: Flickr.com
Johannesburg - Reports that a Home
Affairs official allegedly manhandled reporters outside a Cape Town police
station were met with outrage by the South African National Editors' Forum (Sanef)
on Wednesday.
Sanef said in a statement that Cape
Argus photojournalist David Ritchie and reporter Yolisa Tswanya were covering a
story about the arrest and detention of immigrants at the police station when
they were accosted by the official.
“According to Cape Argus executive
editor Gasant Abarder, the officer pulled Ritchie from outside the police
station, grabbed his camera and proceeded to delete the images - without
identifying himself.”
A police officer, who
witnessed the incident, apparently ordered Ritchie off the police premises.
The newspaper's legal representatives
were investigating the matter, with a view to instituting civil and or criminal
cases against the official.
Sanef said it supported this action.
“Sanef is also concerned that it
appears that wayward officials have taken to deleting images.
“Why would government officials go
through the trouble of manhandling journalists and deleting their pictures if
they (officials) knew that they had not broken the law and thus had nothing to
hide?”
Sanef said the deletion of images was
illegal and should not be tolerated in a democracy. - Sapa
