Defenders of the laws? - 7 Feb 2011By Simone Puterman (@SimoneBiz)
Standing Order 156 states, among other things: Police may "under no circumstances" verbally or physically abuse journalists and no cameras or other equipment may be seized, unless this is destined to be an exhibit in court; and police may "under no circumstances whatsoever" wilfully damage the camera, film, recording or other equipment of a journalist. (Source: Mark van der Velden, The ExtraOrdinary Editor, 2009). To quote ProJourn: "The assault is all the more disturbing following as it does a week of attacks and intimidation of journalists in Egypt, which ProJourn outright condemns. It also follows too many incidents of police intimidating journalists, arresting them for carrying out their duties, and obstructing them from doing their jobs over the past several years." Simone Puterman (@SimoneBiz) | Simone Puterman
Simone Puterman (@SimoneAtLarge) is currently editor-at-large at Marklives.com. After majoring in psychology and linguistics at Rhodes University, and then completing her honours in psychology, she has been in the world of B2B publishing since 1997, with 7.5 year stints at both WriteStuff Publishing and Bizcommunity.com (March 2006-August 2013), the latter in the roles of senior sub-editor, assistant editor, managing editor and, lastly, editor-at-large). Simone is a member of the South African National Editors Forum, serving as deputy chair of the online editors subcommittee as well as being part of the media freedom subcommittee. A former IRC addict, she is passionate about computer-mediated communication and building communities, and has taken to social media like a duck to water. She also loves bright, rainbow colours and food. Email her at moc.sevilkram@enomis, follow @SimoneAtLarge on Twitter and connect with her on Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+. |
Once again, those who should be upholding the law seem to be ignorant of it - or do they believe themselves above the law? On Friday, 4 February 2011, there were two illegal police attacks on press photographers in Pretoria and Bloemfontein and both the South African National Editors Forum (SANEF) and the Professional Journalists' Association of South Africa (ProJourn) have issued strong statements condemning the assaults and the ignorance of the police with respect to their own regulations (Standing Order 156), especially in the light of recent similar incidents.