Legal Articles and Guides

Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) Judge Neil Tuchten has dismissed an urgent appeal by the National House of Traditional Leaders to interdict the return of the film Inxeba (The Wound) to cinemas. A News24 report says the application was dismissed with costs. The decision comes after Tuchten had earlier ruled that pending a review application on 28 March, the film could be screened again from 9 March.

The X-rated ban on the Xhosa initiation film Inxeba (The Wound) was yesterday temporarily lifted by agreement between the parties following an urgent application by the producers, says the Pretoria News. The film will be distributed with an 18 age restriction, which means that it may be screened at all cinemas, pending the outcome of review proceedings which will be heard on 28 March.

MTN and the eThekwini Municipality have been accused of violating Durban by-laws following their joint venture to erect cellphone masts across the city. The Mercury reports the Durban Anti-Cell Mast Alliance claims that MTN has erected a total of 123 cellphone masts across the city without complying with the city’s spatial planning regulations.

The producers of Inxeba – The Wound have confirmed they are seeking an urgent interdict to overturn the X18 rating of the film, says a report in The Herald. Following several attempts by the producers of the critically acclaimed film to have the rating overturned, they have now turned to law firm Webber Wentzel.

The Department of Communications has confirmed that state-sponsored set-top boxes will not be encrypted, despite a long-standing ANC policy position that supports encryption, says a Business Day report. ‘The current government policy is non-encryption. Thus far, 1.5m set-top boxes have been ordered and approximately 850 000 were delivered,’ said Ireen Magwai, on behalf of Communications Minister Mmamoloko Kubayi-Ngubane, axed in last night's Cabinet shake-up.

The Competition Commission has fined two newspaper groups for collusion on the prices charged to advertisers. TimesLIVE says Caxton received a R5.8m fine and the Independent Group R2.2m. This follows a R22.3m fine handed to Naspers's pay-TV subsidiary DStv in May 2017, the commission said.

In a case that could have major implications for Cambodia, exiled politician Sam Rainsy has filed a legal suit against Facebook, demanding it hand over any information which could prove that the Cambodian Prime Minister, Hun Sen, purchased millions of ‘likes’ to appear popular on the social media platform.

The SA National Editors' Forum (Sanef) has warned that MultiChoice's decision to end its contract with ANN7 could have serious implications for media freedom, notes News24. The move could set a dangerous precedent at a time when the country was calling out for more media to afford the public with a variety and multiplicity of views, Sanef chairperson Mahlatse Mahlase said.

A unit of African media and e-commerce giant Naspers said yesterday it will not renew its contract with a news channel previously owned by the Gupta family. A TimesLIVE report notes that MultiChoice, the biggest pay-TV provider in Africa, said an investigation found the company had not done proper due diligence on ANN7 but there was no corruption in its contract.

The DA in Gauteng has laid charges of incitement of violence against social media user, Aubery Thamasanqa Mabele, at the Vereeniging police station. DA Emfuleni caucus leader, Dady Mollo, Emfuleni constituency chairperson, Isabel Lot, and DA Ward 45 councillor, Elize Aucamp, laid the charges against Mabele over his Facebook post calling on President Jacob Zuma to ‘give him a gun to defend our democracy’ in connection with Hoërskool Overvaal in Vereeniging.

Castle Free faces having to re-label its alcohol-free product launched by SAB in October because it in fact contains 0.03% alcohol when it claimed it contained ‘0.0% alcohol’, notes Daily News. That it contains some alcohol is confirmed in the small-print, which reads: ‘Contains de-alcoholised beer 0.03% alcohol’.

Are investigative journalists Jacques Pauw and Pieter-Louis Myburgh, who have both written about alleged corrupt relationships involving President Jacob Zuma, being targeted by police? Are the police attempting to intimidate them? Legalbrief notes these are legitimate questions following recent events recorded in a report on the News24 site.

DStv has been taken to task by the Advertising Standards Authory (ASA) for passing off old and repeat content as new offerings, TimesLIVE reports. A subscriber, Alison Job, complained that the channel had described the US sitcom Mom as new when it was old content. This was also the case with the Doc Martin series, she said.

Parliament would consider an inquiry into damaging allegations about MultiChoice’s conduct, according to Communications Committee chair Humphrey Maxegwana. ‘We can’t just leave the issues in the public domain. It needs to be discussed and a decision needs to be taken,’ Maxegwana reportedly told Business Day yesterday.

Details of the multimillion-rand broadcasting deal between the SABC and MultiChoice may never be made public if the two companies get their way in the Constitutional Court, notes a Business Day report. The five-year agreement entered into by the two entities in 2013 resulted in the SABC pocketing more than R500m in exchange for extensive rights to its archived content, with an added pact that MultiChoice would not encrypt SABC TV channels when the country migrates to digital terrestrial television.