ADDRESSING THE NATION MAY 2021
I
REAFFIRMING DEMOCRACY & FREEDOM OF SPEECH
n his first letter to the nation for the month of May, our President speaks about the importance of freedom of speech, not only for journalists but for all members of the public – and he reaffirms that any expression of dissatisfaction in South Africa may be made without fear of retribution. Recognising how far we’ve come Looking back at Freedom Month is a time for recognising and celebrating how far we have come since the days before democracy – a dark time of banning orders, imprisonment without trial and the unilateral closure of publications.
8 | Public Sector Leaders | May 2021
The 2021 World Press Freedom Index, published by Reporters without Borders, is a measurement of the state of media freedom across the globe, which has found that generally there has been a decline in public access to information and an increase in obstacles to news coverage in a number of countries. The statistics in the report reveal that journalism is ‘totally blocked or seriously impeded’ in 73 countries and ‘constrained’ in 59 others – with a notable decline in media freedom having occurred during COVID-19. South Africa is ranked 32nd out of 180 countries and our state of media freedom
is described as ‘guaranteed but fragile’. The report lists our Constitution which protects freedom and our established culture of investigative journalism, as positives in our favour, whilst the number of negatives include legal injunctions against both taking images of National Key Points and reporting on matters involving state security. What also counted against our overall ranking was the increase of intimidation of journalists, especially female journalists on social media, during 2020. President Ramaphosa describes this intimidation as “totally unacceptable, but is particularly
