• ALERT Date: October 16, 2007 Persons: Matthews Baloyi, Chris Collingridge, Violation: Threatened, censored, detained On October 16 2007, a police officer manhandled The Star photographer Matthews Baloyi and confiscated equipment belonging to him, while chief photographer Chris Collingridge was arrested for taking down the registration number of a private car used by a police officer. Collingridge was later released. The incident took place following heated scenes between the South Africa Police Service (SAPS) and the Johannesburg Metro police. According to newspaper reports, the metro police arrived in six cars and a flatbed truck to tow away illegally parked vehicles. After they started ticketing the vehicles, which belonged to the SAPS’s Crime Intelligence Unit, an argument broke out between the two parties. Baloyi said he was insulted by a police officer for taking pictures of the scene, and then was grabbed by the neck and pulled across the road, The Star reports. The police officer seized his camera and dropped it on the pavement before putting it into the trunk of one of the police cars at the scene. • ALERT Date: October 15, 2007 Persons: “Mail and Guardian” and “Die Burger” photographers Violation: Beaten, censored Photographers from the Mail and Guardian and Die Burger were manhandled in an attempt to prevent them from taking pictures at the demonstrations of residents of the informal “Joe Slovo” settlement on the N2 highway, outside Cape Town. • ALERT Date: October 10, 2007 Persons: Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI), Media Workers’ Association of South Africa (Mwasa), the National Council of Trade Unions (Nactu), the South African Chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa-SA), the South African NGO Coalition (Sangoco) and the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC). Violation: Other Several labour and civil society organisations have sent a joint letter to President Thabo Mbeki objecting to the list of names forwarded to him for the new Board of the South African Broadcasting Corporation (SABC). He has been asked not to appoint them, and rather to send the list of names forwarded to him back to the National Assembly for reconsideration. The letter was sent from the Congress of South African Trade Unions (Cosatu), Freedom of Expression Institute (FXI), Media Workers’ Association of South Africa (Mwasa), the National Council of Trade Unions (Nactu), the South African Chapter of the Media Institute of Southern Africa (Misa-SA), the South African NGO Coalition (Sangoco) and the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC). The organisations argued in the letter that, as representatives of the labour movement and civil society, they do not believe that the list of nominees fulfils the requirement of s.13(4) of the Broadcasting Act. According to s.13(4)(a), the Board, when viewed collectively, should consist of persons who are suited to serve on the Board by virtue of their qualifications, expertise and experience in the fields of broadcasting policy and technology, broadcasting regulation, media law, frequency planning, business practice and finance, marketing, journalism, entertainment and education, and social and labour issues. In addition, they believe that the Board does not represent a broad cross-section of the populaSo This Is Democracy? 2007 -79- Media Institute of Southern Africa