fasts seem to be overpriced but they have
been defended by interested parties.

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The Gupta family, who are close
friends with president Zuma, own TNA,
a “good news” publication highlighting
government’s positive work. The TNA
refuses to release circulation figures, but
has substantial, full-page colour advertising, mainly from State-owned enterprises and government departments. TNA
teamed up with SABC, to organise “networking” breakfasts. The press exposed
the splurges: Gauteng premier Nomvula
Mokonyane sponsored one breakfast for
R683,095 (approximately US$74,00). The
premier’s office was also invoiced for 500
guests at R801.78 (just under US$100)
per head, totalling R400,890 (approximately US$43,000); and four front-page
advertisements at R44,070 (just under
US$5,000) each, amounting to R176,280
(approximately US$19,000).5 The trend of
business breakfasts look set to continue
in 2013 and politicians (including opposition party leader Helen Zille’s), government may continue endorsing the one
newspaper, and one broadcaster event.
However, amidst the doom, there
were some media freedom victories.

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•

Zuma dropped charges: on 28 Oc-

tober 2012, Zuma dropped his R5million (approximately US$540,000)
lawsuit against “Zapiro” for the Lady
Justice cartoon, which depicted him
unzipping his trousers to rape the
justice system. This was hailed as a
victory for freedom of expression.
The bad news is that the seemingly litigious president has 15 more
claims against other media, totalling
about R50-million (approximately
US$5,500,00), according to lawyer,
Dario Milo.
• Media’s secret sources: In November
2012, a landmark judgement by the
Constitutional Court in the case of
a newspaper protecting its sources
against security and management
company Bosasa was hailed a press
freedom victory. The Mail & Guardian would not disclose its confidential sources from which it was able
to break stories of tender corruption going into multimillions. Bosasa
tried with several courts from the
North Gauteng High Court, to the
South Gauteng High Court where
Judge Moroa Tsoka said protecting
ones sources was “the democratic
function of the press”. 6 Bosasa went
to the Constitutional Court to appeal, and lost, again.
Still, media freedom entered 2013
on the back-foot with the looming twin
threats of the Secrecy Bill and MAT, and
the uphill battle journalists faced with
the National Key Points Act. The struggle
for media freedom, freedom of informa-

5
http://www.iol.co.za/news/politics/gautengs-r700k-new-age-breakfast-1.1460885#.
URJdp0I6arc: 30 January 2013.

6
Mg.co.za/article/2012-11-22
bosasa-losesources-case-appeal-bid-with-costs



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