South Africa: Uncertain Limits

The warning signs had been visible for months. In September the government of State President P.W. Botha expelled a U.S. correspondent for allegedly reporting "half truths." Only weeks later an American television camera crew was arrested and charged with disobeying a police order to leave a protest rally. In October Minister of Law and Order Louis Le Grange accused the foreign media of encouraging blacks to fake violent incidents in order to film them. Thus it came as little surprise to most of the 172 accredited foreign journalists in South Africa when on Nov. 2 the Botha government imposed new restrictions that sharply limit press access to often bloody clashes between police and black protesters.

A week after the new regulations went into effect, many foreign journalists continued to be baffled by them. "We still are not certain where the boundaries really lie," said Michael Buerk, a correspondent for the British Broadcasting Corporation. After two black men were killed by police outside Cape Town, early police reports and accounts provided differing versions of how the incident started. Reporters pointedly reminded readers and viewers that the new restrictions made it difficult to confirm their stories. In Johannesburg, the Foreign Correspondents Association strongly denounced the restrictions. The F.C.A. warned that forcing the media to operate within such stringent guidelines could create "a news vacuum in which rumors and distortions, from whatever quarter, will prevail."

The Botha government, for its part, is concerned that vivid scenes of violence between police and black protesters may have caused a deep visceral opposition in TV viewers around the world to South Africa's system of apartheid. The new rules are toughest on broadcast journalists. Television and photographic crews are now required to leave the scene if violence breaks out in any of the 38 districts where the government has declared a "state of emergency." Says Deputy Minister of Information Louis Nel: "The presence of television and camera crews has proved to be a catalyst for further violence."

Print reporters are permitted to stay in off-limits areas, but they must first report to the local police station. At the discretion of the commanding officer, they may be assigned police escorts and travel through violence-torn areas in police vehicles. Many journalists fear that riding with the police will affect their credibility in the eyes of blacks. Newsmen and activists alike are concerned that the absence of reporters and cameras could result in increased brutality against protesters. The Rev. Allan Boesak, president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, bitterly charges that the government wants to restrict the press "so that they can murder our children and there will be no witnesses and no record of what they have done."

France and Britain have lodged diplomatic protests with Pretoria criticizing the new curbs on press freedom. So have most major news organizations. CBS News Anchorman Dan Rather, who is chairman of the freedom of information committee of the Television and Radio Working Press Assoc., urged Botha to rescind the ban.