South Africa Though sparingly used in South Africa, many ruling parties throughout the continent have used criminal defamation and so-called ``insult’’ laws to stifle criticism of presidents and politicians by the media, by charging them with criminal defamation and imprisoning them. The ANC initiative has now reached the stage where the legal instrument for the abolition of the common law aspect of criminal defamation has been incorporated in a General Criminal Law Amendment Bill which is expected to be presented to the Cabinet in March, 2016, and promulgated in April. Use of advertising spend to punish press The strident criticism of the media by senior members of the ANC turned to the issue of taxpayers’ money spent on advertising state matters and services which, they claimed, should be placed only in media outlets which were seen to be not ``oppositional’’. This judgment took on a surprising dimension when Karima Brown, the highest ranking editorial executive at Independent Newspapers, the biggest English-language newspaper group in the country, urged government to use taxpayers’ funds as a political tool to punish newspapers critical of it and reward those which report favourably on its conduct. She said the government should place its advertisements with media which give it a fair hearing rather than those who write it off as a failed state. Brown is Group Editorial Executive of Independent Newspapers and is reported to have told this to ANC members on the eve of their National General Council meeting. She agreed with the ANC that “there is a tendency among the print media to almost take an oppositional stance on the ruling party on occasion.’’ Using the placement of advertisements as a means of pressure or control, is considered corrupt and a breach of the Press Code. Journalists contend that advertisements are placed to reach certain readers and those target audiences are identified by research of the newspaper market. There can be no question of selecting newspapers as a reward for favouring government or as a punishment for being critical of it. Despite these anti-media sentiments, the government gave the bulk of its advertisements to the newspapers which were most critical of it, neglecting those which were balanced. The Right2Know: a case of community-driven advocacy As South Africa faces new threats to its freedom of expression, there is a bright silver lining on the horizon with the existence of Right2Know – an activist and community-driven campaign advocacy group. The Right2Know advocacy campaigns have managed to effectively link freedom of expression to broader issues of poverty, social cohesion and inclusion. It has also created new and alternative participatory spaces for media reform debates such as the streets, town halls and informal settlements. Key achievements include “Freedom Week” that saw 31 events around the country and the hosting of a series of Media Transformation Summits that brought together working journalists, community media and civil society to build alliances to advance a just media transformation. Right2Know also introduced a new model for access to telecommunication So This is Democracy? 2015 55