Freedom of expression organisations have labelled court action by the Moti Group against amaBhungane investigations agency as tantamount to a SLAPP suit, reports GroundUp.

They also cautioned against the ‘weaponisation of the courts’.

The SA National Editors Forum, Media Monitoring Africa Trust and the Campaign for Free Expression have applied to be amicus curiae in the ongoing legal wrangling between the Moti Group and amaBhungane.

This after the group, in an ex parte hearing before Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) Judge John Holland-Muter, obtained an order directing that the journalists return documents.

The group claims these were stolen by its former legal adviser Clinton Van Niekerk and that these were the basis of a series of amaBhungane articles labelled #TheMotiFiles.

The judge interdicted amaBhungane from publishing any further articles based on the documents, pending a return date for further consideration of the matter in October.

AmaBhungane has applied to the court urgently for a reconsideration of the orders.

It has been set down for hearing on 27 June 2023. 

In support of amaBhungane’s stance, the three media freedom organisations have made a joint submission to the court. They said SLAPP suits were part of an ‘eroding climate for media freedom’.

They referred to the recent judgment handed down in which three KZN judges quashed a private prosecution initiated by former President Jacob Zuma against journalist Karyn Maughan (and senior State Advocate Billy Downer).

In that ruling, the judges noted the abuse of SLAPP suits ‘to intimidate, censor and silence journalists’.

They also referred to a recent report to the UN Human Rights Council which emphasised that journalists and news outlets were being increasingly targeted with litigation.

This was in an attempt to ‘intimidate or exhaust the resources and morale of journalists’.

‘If sources can be disclosed, merely so they can be punished by the person whose secrets they revealed, the media cannot do its job.’

Full GroundUp report