SA Rocks

I was interviewed for an Austrian radion station, FM4, recently.

There seems to be a growing interest in the SA Elections coming up on Wednesday. Zuma is a focus and the ANC is under scrutiny.

I was asked to speak about freedom of speech in SA, in blogs in SA as well as priorities in the country, major concerns and issues as well as a few other topics.

Click to listen to the audio file from my interview only. Right click, save as, to download.

You can also head over to FM4′s website and listen to a chunk of the show. It’s actually surprisingly interesting and insightful.

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Pieter-Dirk Uys has never been shy of controversy and neither has Zapiro for that matter. But when our soon to be next president, Zuma, decides it’s high time to sue a satirist for being, well, satirical, then we have a bit of an issue.

This is a fantastic move made and is rational, believable, understandable and a likeable move made by a lovable icon of South Africa past and present.

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Mondli Makhanya to be arrested, SA democracy under threat

I don’t believe I am understating the title of this post in the slightest.

Sunday brought with it the news that Sunday Times Editor, Mondli Makhayna and journalist Jocelyn Maker face arrest in the coming week. This is shocking and worrisome news to say the very, very least.

It is my personal opinion that when the editor of a newspaper such as Sunday Times can be arrested for printing a story, we need to take a stand as the public.

Mbeki is running riot, he is hiding his agenda’s and promoting a cause that is all of his own. It is partly our fault. Don’t get me wrong, we are the public, they are the government, that is life. I know. But I think that right now we need to make a noise. We need to let it be known that this is not right.

Many people have already spoken out about the situation. Speaking to a friend about it earlies we came to the conclusion that this is a very serious situation. More so, this is very saddening to me. That a man can destroy media freedom with one single action – albeit many actions prior to this one.

In case you did not know, I am a journalist. I hold the media in very, very high regard and especially in regard to democracy and an operational and effective democracy. When the media dies, democracy dies with it. Not slowly but very quickly. If Mondli Makhanya is arrested the media is in trouble. But not bloggers. Not us.

I am blogging about this on SA Rocks because I am not ignorant. I am an intelligent guy and I know when issues are more important than ideals. And the ideal of a Rocking SA could be in jeopardy with the actions of our president this weekend. It will be an interesting week at my place of work I can assure you. We are in for some trying times in the media industry.

I will be following up this post later in the week. If you have anything to say with regard to this specific topic, please contact me or post on this comment. Let’s take a stand. It’s about time.

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