Download - Media Institute of Southern Africa

State of the media in Southern Africa 2002
out accordingly through the descriptive terms “threatening legislation
and “positive legislation”. The statistic given is for the number
of incidents reported under this category, as opposed to the number
of media workers or media organisations involved.
OTHER - These are incidents which do not necessarily involve the
media, but which affect aspects of freedom of expression or speech
in general. These can involve cases of sedition against a member of
the public, a general curb on free speech, parliamentary speech or
access to information (e.g. matters involving the internet, pornography,
hate speech, political speech), a violation of the right to freedom
of assembly and protest, or an incident relating to artistic or
academic freedom. Incidents involving the media, which do fall
under this category, involve that of media pluralism (a publication
closing down because of financial reasons) or incidents involving
access to the public media. The statistic given is for the number of
incidents reported under this category.
VICTORY - This is self-explanatory in terms of its implication
for the media, but involves different types of incidents. Some incidents
falling under this category have immediate implications
for individual media workers or media organisations (being released
unconditionally, having charges dropped, winning or avoiding
civil litigation, overturning gagging orders and acquittal on
criminal charges), while others have broad implications that advance
media freedom, access to information or freedom of expression
in general (favourable policy statements from public officials,
the adoption of media-friendly laws or policies, favourable
and precedent-setting court judgements, and favourable procedures
and decisions by statutory or other bodies dealing with
matters of media content or freedom of expression). The statistics
given is for the number of incidents reported under this category.
2002
The method of classification
Every dated entry in So This Is Democracy? has been assigned a descriptive
term. Every dated entry which is indicated as an ‘ALERT’ falls under that
respective category and thus adds to the statistics in that particular category.
Some entries do not fall within any of the listed categories and are merely
included as additional information on media developments in a given country.
These are not indicated as ‘ALERTS’, rather as ‘UPDATES’ which have
already been classified. For the sake of statistics, therefore, the assigned category
of an entry and/or the number involved, is listed only once and not
repeated in the case of another entry relating to the same case.
6 So This Is Democracy?