South Africa their duties in 2014. However, private citizens, too, perpetrated threats and physical attacks against media workers. For example, in December Ms Thandeka Nene – a building contractor who was out on bail after being arrested for corruption and fraud in relation to her work on President Jacob Zuma’s Nkandla homestead – allegedly assaulted a Sunday Tribune journalist, Sandile Ngidi. Nene’s mother had been stabbed to death by intruders so Sunday Tribune journalists went to Nene’s home to cover the story. Nene allegedly attacked the reporters, leaving Ngidi bleeding and needing several stitches. Nene certainly had the right to ask the reporters to leave, but it was not lawful to attack the journalists. This was unjust and a grave violation of media workers’ rights to be able to do their jobs without fear or threat of violence. In another incident, alleged community leaders kidnapped Daily Sun staff during a protest about the building and demolition of shacks in Malemaville, an area just outside Pretoria. The journalists were held against their will and one said his clothing was torn. He was slapped and hit with a beer bottle on the knee. The perpetrators allegedly threatened to necklace the journalists to gain more media attention. They also confiscated the journalists’ equipment and when they returned it later the camera was damaged. Photographers prime target of assaults and threats in 2014 On 25 April 2014, a member of President Zuma’s VIP Protection Unit demanded that eNCA reporter Nikolaus Bauer delete photos he had taken at an 54 So This is Democracy? 2014 election rally in Duduza. When he refused, the guard forcibly took the phone from Bauer’s hands and deleted the images. Other journalist at the scene photographed the guard deleting the photos. Bauer said another bodyguard who asked him to delete the photos said if he did not, it would result, “in us giving you hell.” In another incident, police detained freelancer Sandiso Phaliso in early February while covering a story for the Daily Sun on a vigilante attack in Phillipi. Phaliso photographed police officers taking pictures on their mobile phones of a badly injured victim and discussing how they would post the pictures on Facebook. When the officers saw him, they locked him in the back of a police van and insisted he delete his photographs. He was kept at the Nyanga police station for two hours, before being released. In an attempt to address such incidents, the South African National Editors Forum (SANEF) requested a meeting with the National Police Commissioner, General Riah Phiyega and the two bodies decided to establish a high level committee of senior SAPS and SANEF members to improve police-media relations and facilitiate training for police officers and journalists to help them understand their complementary roles in serving the public interest. By April 10 2015 the committee had not been set up. CENSORSHIP AND BANNING Parliamentary debates censored by cutting broadcasting feeds There were several incidents throughout of the year of interference with the audio and visual news feeds from Parliament,