The South African National Editors’ Forum (Sanef) says the EFF’s scathing attack on the media is dangerous and has what it terms a chilling effect on freedom of expression.
This follows party leader, Julius Malema’s call on his supporters last month to ‘deal decisively with journalists’, and naming certain media personnel as he addressed supporters outside the venue of the Commission of Inquiry into State Capture in Parktown, Johannesburg.
Some journalists subsequently faced abuse on social media.
Sanef has requested a meeting with the EFF to discuss the matter but the party says it’s busy preparing for the elections.
Sanef executive director Kate Skinner says the EFF is putting the lives of certain journalists at risk…
“He’s picked out particular journalists and named and shamed in particular individual journalists. For Sanef, why we are very worried about that is that those journalists are then ridiculed on social media. We just want to make it absolutely clear that if you are unhappy and that’s not to say the media is above criticism, of course we are not above criticism, but there are proper channels to go to that don’t actually literally put the lives of certain journalists at risk.”
Watch related video:
