Pretoria – President Jacob Zuma has urged the media industry to ensure access to the media is enjoyed by all in the country, including the poor and the working class.
“This entails ensuring that media products reflect the lives of the majority and that they have the space to share their dreams, successes and hardships, accurately and without prejudice,” President Zuma said.
He encouraged media to produce products that inspire and build the country and provides the youth with role models around whom they can build their lives.
President Zuma on Sunday addressed editors and senior journalists in Pretoria as part of the commemoration of national Press Freedom Day.
The event will commemorate Black Wednesday, 19 October 1977 when the apartheid regime clamped down on the media, banning newspapers the World and Weekend and jailing journalists.
President Zuma emphasised the importance of information by saying that it’s powerful and citizens need information to go about their daily lives.
“They need to know about government services and where and how to access them,” President Zuma said.
He told the media that government was also playing its role to further promote access to information to the poor who are not covered by commercial media, through the government newspaper Vukuzenzele which reaches more than one million people a month.
“We fought hard and relentlessly to have a South Africa where all enjoy these rights and freedoms.
“Therefore, our commitment to freedom of expression, a free media and all the freedoms enshrined in our Constitution remains steadfast,” President Zuma said.
He reflected on what happened on 19 October 1977 when the apartheid regime clamped down on the media, banning two newspapers, the World and Weekend World.
“They arrested the editor, the late Percy Qoboza and other journalists who were courageously exposing crimes against humanity that were perpetrated by the regime.
“The clampdown took place in the climate of repression that had followed the June 16 uprising and the horrific and unforgivable murder of Bantu Steven Biko in police custody in September 1977,” President Zuma said.
Scores of activists were banned and arrested while others fled South Africa and opted for a life in exile.
“We are sad because so many lives were lost and destroyed over many decades because of an evil regime that turned South Africans against one another and sowed divisions and hatred.
“We are pleased and proud because we defeated the demon of racism and racial oppression and brought about a new democratic order in our country,” he said.
When South Africa was crafting a new democratic order it determined that never again would the nation witness the harassment of the media such as that which occurred on 19 October 1977.
President Zuma updated the media on the status of the Protection of State Information Bill saying it was under consideration and various inputs and legal opinions are being processed. – SAnews.gov.za
