Recent decisions by the Constitutional Court are based on a legally and constitutionally flawed view that media freedom is contingent on the good behaviour of the media, write Robert Danay and Jacob Foster in the SA Journal on Human Rights. Decisions like the one that upheld a ruling by the Supreme Court of Appeal to refuse to allow the SABC to broadcast an appeal hearing by fraudster Shabir Shaik serve to undermine media freedom.
The proper reference for the article is:
Danay, Robert Jacob and Foster, Jacob, "The Sins of the Media: the SABC Decision and the Erosion of Free Press Rights" . South African Journal on Human Rights, Vol. 22, No. 4, p. 563, 2006
Click here to view a pdf file of the article. Thanks to the SAJHR and publishers Juta & Co for permission to republish.