Legal Articles and Guides

Media groups and NGOs took the issues of parliamentary signal-jamming and censoring of live broadcasts to the SCA yesterday, notes Daily News. Primedia‚ the SA National Editors Forum‚ the Right2Know Campaign and the Open Democracy Advice Centre approached the court to ensure live broadcasts from Parliament were not censored and that signal jamming devices were not used to block journalists using mobile phones, as had been the case during EFF disruptions of President Jacob Zuma’s State of Nation Address in February 2015.

The Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) has issued a final interdict against veteran documentary producer Sylvia Vollenhoven in terms of which she may not distribute or broadcast the documentary Project Spear, commissioned by the public broadcaster, notes a Pretoria News report. The SABC was due to broadcast the documentary in September 2012, but gave various reasons for not doing so, including that it would open the broadcaster to defamation claims as there were allegations that could not be substantiated.

Journalist and diplomat Jon Qwelane"s controversial freedom of speech battle gets a hearing in the Gauteng High Court (Johannesburg) this week when he seeks to have sections of the law governing hate speech and harassment declared unconstitutional. A Mail & Guardian report says Qwelane is challenging the Promotion of Equality and Prevention of Unfair Discrimination Act.

The Communications Ministry has taken a hands-off approach to the SABC because it has full confidence in the board, it said yesterday. A BDlive report says the department was responding to reports over recent developments at the public broadcaster, saying Communications Minister Faith Muthambi "chose not to meddle" in its internal matters.

SABC contributing editor Vuyo Mvoko"s constitutional rights to freedom of expression were infringed by the public broadcaster"s decision to "punish" him by taking him off air for an article in which he criticised its management. This, says a Weekend Argus report, is argued in Mvoko"s application for leave to appeal against the dismissal of his application to have his contract enforced.

Politically connected businessman Kuben Moodley stands to rake in R380m from a suspect debt-collection deal with the SABC authorised by the broadcaster"s acting CE, James Aguma, according to a Sunday Times report. It notes Moodley is a former special adviser to Mineral Resources Minister Mosebenzi Zwane and golf partner of Salim Essa, a kingpin in the Gupta empire.

The danger of defaming someone on Facebook was again highlighted in a damages claim instituted by Paul Hechter, whose name was "dragged in the mud" following a run-in with his neighbour, says a report in The Mercury. Hechter said in papers before the Gauteng High Court (Pretoria) that he was accused of being a Peeping Tom, a pervert and a paedophile.

The long-delayed racism case brought by reporters against their then boss Ferial Haffajee is due in court next week. A report in The Star says the four former City Press reporters " Mawande Mvumvu, Khanyiso Tshwaku, Muntu Vilakazi and Denvor de Wee " brought the case against then editor Haffajee in January 2014, accusing her of defaming them by calling them racists.