The Media tribunal is staring the media in South Africa in the face. I have pondered the implications of  Media Tribunal for a while now. I have an opinion about what it will mean to the unofficial press, the unregulated media that is  so prevalent.

Bloggers and Microbloggers

Treading the Line between Slippery Slopes and Alarmism

The term “Slippery Slope” refers to a form of rhetoric or debate where it is argued that a small event can trigger a chain of events that eventually lead to a negative or disastrous outcome.

It may refer to a logical argument, but it’s flaw is that it ignores the possibility of common, or middle, ground.

Alarmism is the practice of taking something misunderstood and creating a false alarm about this real or imagined threat.

I have been trying to veer away from these two extremes of argument while pondering the question of the Media Tribunal in South Africa. I am not politically and legally adept enough to understand the finer nuances of this Tribunal, and the laws that may or may not accomplish it.

The government of South Africa are engaging in both the Slippery Slope Fallacy and alarmism in their arguments for the Tribunal. Same goes for the Protection of Information Bill.

The idea being put forward is basically “Some of the news stories are inaccurate hence all media is bad and needs to be kept in check.”

While more reasonable voices are being raised, with better suggestions (read this Daily Maverick piece by Stephen Grootes for an excellent example of one such suggestion), the general consensus is the the government needs to control the media.

But can the media be controlled?

Free Speech, and Swinging your Arm.

Two basic principles are being dragged into the brawl that is the ongoing debate regarding the Media Tribunal – Free Speech, and Freedom of Expression.

The two are inexorably tied together – constitutionally our rights to free speech and freedom of expression are guaranteed. The media has the right to report the news, yes they have an obligation to make sure the news they report is accurate and fair, but as individuals and as a collective their right to freedom of speech is paramount.

You cannot have a free press without freedom of speech.

There is the counter argument that your freedoms are limited at the point where you are causing harm. There is an analogy; “Your right to swing your arm ends at the tip of my nose.”

On the face (sorry) of it this seems like a valid point – you can have freedom of speech, but the moment you call me a prick I am going to punch you. Practice throwing rocks all you like, just don’t try and hit my house.

The problem with that is this – what if you stick your nose where it does not belong? What if I really am being a prick? What if my house is made of glass, and I am the one who started chucking stones all over the neighborhood?

The Media Tribunal and Protection of Information Act may be used to protect the government, to give it an unfair advantage, to take away the freedom of the press.

But What About Informal Media?

Where does this leave guys like me? Is the government equipped to deal with what “media” has become? Do they realize that the news media is not “The Press” anymore? Do they know that today all media is “News Media?”

How will my work be policed? What criteria will be applied to what bloggers like me, or microbloggers with Twitter accounts, write?

What if you drive down the road and a VIP convoy forces you off the road? (These convoys are something to see, you can catch one almost any day of the week between Pretoria and Johannesburg.) How will the rules of the Media Tribunal apply to someone who whips out his cellphone while standing next to the road and who then tweets “Stupid Government Convoy almost caused a crash. Had to stop. #governmentsucks”?

Will bloggers be asked (forced) to register as such? This opens a whole new revenue stream to the government – selling blogging licenses. Wow, now there is an idea…

Will my work need to be approved by this tribunal, or will it be reviewed after the fact?

What about the sheer numbers involved in such an operation? There were an estimated 26000 odd blogs in South Africa in December 2007, with about 3000 of them being active (at least one post every one to two weeks) and today the estimated number of active blogs number at 4000 to 5000. It is probably a little more.

Twitter numbers are staggering – 55000 active twitter users. That is people who tweet at least once a day. The total number of tweets are about 1.5 Million.

How will a media regulator deal with that?

Let’s just look at the numbers – According to some figures the average blog in South Africa updates twice a week. That is 40 000 blog posts to work through, add to that the one-and-a-half-million tweets to be watched and you soon realize that manual checking of this becomes impossible.

Enter Nokia-Siemens Networks

Nokia-Siemens built monitoring systems for tracking and monitoring cellphone communications as part of their obligations to European Union governments. Last year this system allowed Iran to track down dissidents via phone call snooping, sms interception and locating cellphone users.

Conceivably this system, or one similar to it, can be used to monitor blogs and twitter accounts.

A system such as this is the only way that the mammoth task of monitoring the growing online and informal media sector is possible.

To make sure this system is effective anonymous blogging and tweeting will have to end. It is not too much of a stretch to believe that bloggers will be required to register as such, and to fall under the governance of the Media Tribunal. Regulation and control of what is written will be mandated.

To be fair there are some blogs out there that may actually improved due to these measures…

Summary

I hate playing the role of chicken little. I am a simple guy – something breaks, I fix it. Something interests me, I write about it.

This Media Tribunal will complicate my life no end. I am terrible with admin, having to take care of registering as a blogger will be a pain.

The more sinister aspect of this is frightening enough to me though that I felt compelled to add my voice to those opposing the Media Tribunal and the Protection of Information bill.

I want a free press, and I want to be free. I don’t want to blog under the sword of prosecution. I don’t want to mentally censor my tweets before unleashing them on the Internet for fear of the Man coming to my door and dragging my sorry behind in front of a tribunal because I said something deemed “unpopular.”

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